Addie Wagenknecht

Allison Burtch
Claire L. Evans
Denise Caruso
Harlo Holmes
Ingrid Burrington
Jillian C. York
Jen Lowe
Kate Crawford
Lindsay Howard
Lorrie Faith Cranor & CUPS
Maddy Varner
Maral Pourkazemi
Runa A. Sandvik

Addie Wagenknecht
Allison Burtch
Claire L. Evans
Denise Caruso
Harlo Holmes
Ingrid Burrington
Jen Lowe
Jillian C. York
Kate Crawford
Lindsay Howard
Lorrie Faith Cranor & CUPS
Maddy Varner
Maral Pourkazemi
Runa A. Sandvik

CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deep Lab, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-312-77551-0
http://deeplab.net

F O R E
W O R D

The book you are holding was created in five days by a dozen
women. It represents the capstone to Deep Lab, a residency hosted by the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in collaboration with CMUs CyLab
Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory.
Deep Lab is a congress of cyberfeminist researchers, organized
by STUDIO Fellow Addie Wagenknecht to examine how the
themes of privacy, security, surveillance, anonymity, and largescale data aggregation are problematized in the arts, culture and
society. During the second week of December 2014, the Deep Lab
participantsa group of internationally acclaimed new-media
artists, information designers, data scientists, software engineers,
hackers, writers, journalists and theoreticiansgathered to engage in critical assessments of contemporary digital culture. They
worked collaboratively at the STUDIO in an accelerated pressure
project, blending aspects of a booksprint, hackathon, dugnad,
charrette, and a micro-conference. The outcomes of this effort
include the visualizations, software, reflections and manifestos
compiled in this book; an album of ten lecture presentations,
the Deep Lab Lecture Series, which can be found in the STUDIOs
online video archive; and a twenty-minute documentary film
featuring interviews with the Deep Lab participants.

We are proud to present this timely reflection on post-Snowden

society. We express our deepest admiration and thanks to all of
the Deep Lab participants, and to the staff, students, and friends
who directed their energies and attention to this intense effort,
and who collectively and individually made its process and products so enormously rewarding.
The Deep Lab and its associated publications were made possible
through support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Art Works program of the National Endowment
for the Arts. We express our sincere gratitude to these sponsors
for making this investigation possible.
Golan Levin
Director, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Lorrie Faith Cranor
Director, CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory

D EEP

L A B

C O N T E NTS
FORWARD

Golan Levin / Laurie Faith Cranor

INTRO

Addie Wagenknecht

DEEP LAB POSSE

12

NOTES FROM A TALK.

11 DECEMBER 2014.

23

Jen Lowe

CYBERFEMINISM

59

Claire Evans

WHAT IS GOING ON

89

Allison Burtch

SUBTEXT

95

Jillian C. York

YOU ARE OCCUPIED. OR NOT

97

Denise Caruso

3 NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURES

107

Ingrid Burrington

DATA CENTER TIPS

129

Ingrid Burrington

TORTURE REPORTS

139

Addie Wagenknecht / Jen Lowe / Maral Pourkazemi

UNVEILLANCE

133

Harlo Holmes

324/1033

141

Ingrid Burrington

CENSOR WEAR

163

Addie Wagenknecht / Jen Lowe / Maral Pourkazemi

FOXXY DOXXING

171

Harlo Holmes

SECURE DROP

181

Runa A. Sandvik

THIS IS MY CHAPTER

183

Maddy Varner

PRIVACY ILLUSTRATED

185

Lorrie Cranor / Rebecca Balebako /

Darya Kurilova / Manya Sleeper

AFTERWORDS

227

Claire Hentschker / Maddy Varner / Ingrid Burrington

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

234

NOTICES AND DISCLAIMERS

236

COLOPHON

238

I N T R O
The web is largely void of a female presencesave
for sexualized imagesfemale hackers must engage
with the future, in order to make our presence in
history indelible.
And so Deep Lab was born.

D EEP

1 2

L A B

Deep Lab is a collaborative group of researchers, artists,

writers, engineers, and cultural producers interested in privacy,
surveillance, code, art, social hacking, and anonymity. Members
of Deep Lab are engaged in ongoing critical assessments of
contemporary digital culture and exploit the hidden potential
for creative inquiry lying dormant within the deep web. Deep
Lab supports its members' ability to output anonymously via
proxy tools; in this way, our research can remain fluid via
multi-pseodonymous identity. Deep Lab promotes creative
research and development that challenges traditional forms
of representation and distribution, evaluating these practices
alongside typical traffic analysis identification. This process
leverages the research of Deep Lab to contend with outdated
modes of understanding culture within traditional social
structures.
We utilize the Labs extensive knowledge of technology and
creativity as a mode of analysis and output. As a group, we work
to manifest actions better than any corporation or government.
We write our own histories, and make history, by continuing
in the tradition of female hackers and activists like Cornelia
Solfrank, Netochka Nezvanova, and projects like Anna Adamolo.
Addie Wagenknecht, Founder of Deep Lab

D EEP

L A B

13

Founding Members include (A-Z):

Addie Wagenknecht

Artist, Founder Deep Lab

Allison Burtch

Researcher/Artist/Activist

Claire Evans

Futures Editor of Motherboard/Vice Magazine, lead singer YACHT

Denise Caruso

Journalist, Senior Research Scholar, CMU EPP

Harlo Holmes

Developer

Ingrid Burrington
Kate Crawford
Jen Lowe
Jillian York
Lindsay Howard
Lorrie Cranor

Researcher/Artist, Director of metadata for the Guardian

Principal Researcher Microsoft Research, Visiting Professor MIT
Data Scientist/Researcher/Writer
Director for International Freedom of Expression at the EFF
Independent Curator
Director of CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, CMU

Madeleine Varner

Artist/Developer

Maral Pourkazemi

Data/Information Visualizer

Runa Sandvik

Independent privacy and security researcher

Those who came before:

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.),
Cypherpunks,
Guerrilla Girls,
Free Art and Technology Lab (F.A.T.),
Chaos Computer Club,
Radical Software

1 4

D EEP

L A B

D E E P
L
A
B
P O S S E

D EEP

ADDIE

L A B

15

WAG E NK NE C HT

Addie Wagenknecht is an artist who lives and works on

the internet. She seeks to blend conceptual work with
traditional forms of hacking and sculpture. Previous
exhibitions include MuseumsQuartier Wien, Vienna,
Austria; La Gat Lyrique, Paris, France; The Istanbul
Modern; and bitforms gallery in New York City.
@wheresaddie
placesiveneverbeen.com

ALL I S ON

B U RTC H

Allison Burtch is a writer, teacher and maker. She

currently teaches "Critical Theory of Technology:
Politics, Utopia and Code" at the School for Poetic
Computation and is a resident at Eyebeam Art and
Technology Center. She created the Dumb Store, a
mobile app store for dumbphones, and most recently
a log-jammer, a cell phone jammer in a log in the
woods that creates a safe space in nature. Allison coorganized the Prism BreakUp conference at Eyebeam
and the Drones and Aerial Robotics Conference at New
York University. Previously, she served as an Editor
of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and was a fellow
at the Institute of Technology and Society in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. She has a masters degree from New York
University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
@irl
http://www.allisonburtch.net/
https://github.com/allisonburtch/Critical-Theory-ofTechnology

1 6

D EEP

CL AIRE

L A B

L.

E VANS

Claire L. Evans is a writer and artist working in Los

Angeles, California. Her day job is as the singer and
co-author of the conceptual pop group YACHT. A
science journalist and critic, she is the currently
Futures Editor of Motherboard and co-editor of the
science-fiction magazine Terraform.
@theuniverse
clairelevans.com
motherboard.vice.com/terraform

DENIS E

C AR U S O

Since the mid-1980s, Denise Caruso has studied,

analyzed, and published her perspectives about
innovations in technology and their social and
political impacts. In the 1990s, she founded Digital
Media, the seminal newsletter that anticipated and
chronicled the digital convergence and the growth
of the commercial Internet. She was the technology
columnist for The New York Times for five years,
and has contributed to several other publications
including Harvard Business Review. Caruso shifted
her focus to research in 2000, and founded the
nonprofit Hybrid Vigor Institute. Caruso is the author
of Intervention, an award-winning book that detailed
the shortcomings in government risk assessments of
genetically engineered organisms. Since 2010, Caruso
has been a research scholar and lecturer in the
Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) at
Carnegie Mellon University.

D EEP

HARLO

L A B

17

HOLME S

Harlo Holmes is a media scholar, software

programmer, and activist. As Head of Metadata at
The Guardian Project, she primarily investigates
topics in digital media steganography, metadata,
and the standards surrounding technology in the
social sciences. Harlo was also the 2014 KnightMozilla OpenNews fellow at New York Times, and
worked with the Computer Assisted Reporting team
to tackle issues of smarter, safer, and more effective
document management. She harnesses her multifaceted background in service of responding to the
growing technological needs of human rights workers,
journalists, and other do-gooders around the world.
@harlo
harloholm.es

ING RID

B U RR I NG TON

Ingrid writes, makes maps, and tell jokes about

places, politics, and the weird feelings people have
about both. Shes currently a fellow at the Data and
Society Research Institute, where she coordinates the
Magic and Technology Working Group. She lives on a
small island off the coast of America.

@lifewinning
lifewinning.com

D EEP

1 8

JEN

L A B

LOW E

Jen is an independent data scientist and researcher

at Datatelling, where she brings together people,
numbers, words. She teaches in SVA's Design for Social
Innovation program, cofounded the School for Poetic
Computation, taught at NYU ITP, and researched
at the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia
University. She's spoken at SXSW and Eyeo. Her
work has appeared in Scientific American, the New
York Times, Fast Company and Popular Science. Her
research, writing, and speaking explore the promises
and implications of data and technology in society. Her
education is in applied math and information science.
Often oppositional, she's always on the side of love.
@datatelling
datatelling.com

JILLI A N

C .

YORK

Jillian C. York is a writer and activist focused on the

intersection of technology and policy. She serves of
the Director for International Freedom of Expression
at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she
works on issues of free expression, privacy, and digital
security. She is also a Fellow at the Centre for Internet
& Human Rights in Berlin. With Ramzi Jaber, Jillian
co-founded OnlineCensorship.org, a winner of the
2014 Knight News Challenge. She is a frequent public
speaker on topics including surveillance, censorship,
and the role of social media in social change. Her
writing has been published by the New York Times, Al
Jazeera, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Al Akhbar English,
Slate, Foreign Policy, and Die Zeit, among others.
@jilliancyork
jilliancyork.com

D EEP

KA T E

L A B

C RAW F OR D

Kate Crawford is an academic researcher who works

on issues of data, ethics and power. Shes a Principal
Researcher at Microsoft Research, a Visiting Professor
at the MIT Center for Civic Media, a Senior Fellow at
NYU's Information Law Institute, and an Associate
Professor at the University of New South Wales. Shes
based in New York City.
@katecrawford
katecrawford.net

LINDS A Y

HOWARD

Lindsay Howard is an independent curator exploring

how the Internet is shaping art and culture. She
curated the first and second digital art auctions at
Phillips in New York and London, which were called
an "art breakthrough" by WIRED Magazine. Previously
she served as the Curatorial Director at 319 Scholes
and Curatorial Fellow at Eyebeam, the leading art
and technology center in the United States. She has
spoken at Carnegie Mellon University, New York
University, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Her curatorial projects have been featured in the
Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Gawker, The
Verge, and Vanity Fair. Recently, TWIN Magazine
UK recognized her as one of Ten Young Women
Transforming the Art World and Flavorwire named
her an Up-and-Coming New York Culture Maker to
Watch in 2013.
@Lindsay_Howard
lindsayhoward.net

19

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LORR I E

L A B

FA I T H

C RA NOR

Lorrie Faith Cranor is a Professor of Computer Science

and of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie
Mellon University where she is director of the CyLab
Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS) and
co-director of the MSIT-Privacy Engineering masters
program. She is also a co-founder of Wombat
Security Technologies, Inc. She has authored over 100
research papers on online privacy, usable security,
and other topics. She founded the Symposium On
Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) and serves
on the Electronic Frontier Foundation Board of
Directors. She was previously a researcher at AT&TLabs Research and taught in the Stern School of
Business at New York University. In 2012-13 she spent
her sabbatical year as a fellow in the Frank-Ratchye
STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon
University where she worked on fiber arts projects
that combined her interests in privacy and security,
quilting, computers, and technology. She practices
yoga, plays soccer, and runs after her three children.
@lorrietweet
lorrie.cranor.org

MADDY

VAR NE R

Maddy Varner is a member of the Free Art and

Technology Lab. She admins a couple of Facebook
groups. 19/f/pgh, but always on the net.
@mlvarner
slitscanned.com
ffferal.net

D EEP

MARAL

L A B

21

P OU R KA Z E MI

"Design is my conviction and religion." Maral strongly

believes that designing information and data has
the potential to make important and relevant topics
accessible and relatable. Most of her work is related
to freedom of expression and human rights related
topics. She's also the organizer of the VISUALIZEDio
conferences in Berlin and London.
@maralllo
this-is-maral.com

RUNA

A.

S ANDV I K

Runa A. Sandvik is an independent privacy and

security researcher working at the intersection
of technology, law and policy. She is a Forbes
contributor, a technical advisor to the TrueCrypt Audit
project, and a member of the review board for Black
Hat Europe. Prior to joining the Freedom of the Press
Foundation as a full-time technologist in June 2014,
she worked with The Tor Project for four years.
@runasand
encrypted.cc

2 2

D EEP

L A B

THE FRANK- R ATC HYE

S TUD I O F OR C REAT I V E
INQUI RY
The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
at Carnegie Mellon University is a laboratory for
atypical, anti-disciplinary, and inter-institutional
research at the intersections of arts, science,
technology and culture. Founded in 1989 within
the College of Fine Arts, the STUDIO serves as a
locus for hybrid enterprises on the CMU campus,
the Pittsburgh region, and internationally. The
STUDIOs current emphasis on emerging artists
and emerging media builds on more than two
decades of experience hosting interdisciplinary
creators in an environment enriched by worldclass science and engineering departments.
Through our residencies and outreach programs,
the STUDIO provides opportunities for learning,
dialogue and research that lead to innovative
breakthroughs, new policies, and the redefinition
of the role of artists in a quickly changing world.
@creativeinquiry
studioforcreativeinquiry.org

D EEP

L A B

THE CYL AB U S AB LE
PRIVACY AN D S E C U RI T Y
L AB ORATORY
The CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory
(CUPS) brings together researchers working on a
diverse set of projects related to understanding
and improving the usability of privacy and security
software and systems. CUPS research employs a
combination of three high-level strategies to make
secure systems more usable: building systems that
"just work" without involving humans in securitycritical functions; making secure systems intuitive
and easy to use; and teaching humans how to
perform security-critical tasks.
cups.cs.cmu.edu

23

N
F
A
1
E
2

O T E S
R O M
TA L K.
1 D E C
M B E R
0 1 4 .
JEN LOWE

L A B

onehumanheartbeat.com

D EEP

D EEP

L A B

27

Commodifying Life
Almost a year ago I put my heartbeat online. Along with my
heartbeat, I put up an accounting of all the days Ive lived and the
days I (statistically) have yet to live, and my average heartbeat
for each day.
Its a very intimate measure, in a way, but Im not worried
about sharing it, because theres not much you can learn about
me from my heartrate.
But it turned out I didnt know much about heart rates. If you
look at the data in July, you can see that my average heart rate
goes up and stays up starting in mid-July. Thats because of my
pregnancy.
2 years ago at SXSW I gave a talk with Molly Steenson,
The New Nature and the New Nurture, and I introduced
the Big Data Baby - the first baby to be predicted by big
data, or more specifically by Targets algorithms.
A 2012 article in the New York Times described statisticians
like Andrew Pole at Target who, along with others, used
data mining to come up with an algorithm to determine not
only if a female customer was pregnant, but how far along her
pregnancy was, so Target could send coupons timed to very
specific stages of her pregnancy.
About a year after Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model,
a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded
to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent
to his daughter, and he was angry,
My daughter got this in the mail! he said. Shes still in high
school, and youre sending her coupons for baby clothes and
cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?

bit.ly/1qFTbE4

D EEP

2 8

L A B

The manager didnt have any idea what the man was talking
about. He looked at the mailer. it was addressed to the mans
daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing,
nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager
apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.
nyti.ms/1yKn9JT

The father said I had a talk with my daughter, he said. It

turns out theres been some activities in my house I havent
been completely aware of. Shes due in August. I owe you an
apology.
The Big Data Baby: almost as soon as its mother knew of its
existence, Target knew it was there too.

bit.ly/1wKawyt

Our faces are formed between 2 and 3 months. Big Data Baby
might have been identified by data before its face was formed.
As an experiment, Princeton sociology professor Janet Vertesi
tried to hide her pregnancy from big data. This meant hiding
from Facebook and from Amazon. She also avoided using her
own credit and debit cards to make baby-related purchases.
Circumventing big data not only created awkwardness with

D EEP

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29

her family and friends who wanted to congratulate her on Facebook, the mere fact that big data didnt know what she was doing
created an assumption that she was probably up to something
criminal.
A pregnant womans marketing data is worth 15 times an average

ti.me/1wKaLtj

persons data.
Using big data to identify pregnancy may become
antiquated when more people opt in to heartrate
tracking, companies will be able to predict pregnancy
after just a few weeks, potentially before a woman
even knows shes pregnant.
Big data isnt just in the business of births; its also tracking
deaths. Last January Office Max sent Mike Seay this marketing
mail - a glitch that shows us hes in the daughter killed in car
crash marketing container.

Corporations using data to announce births;

corporations using data to remind us of deaths.

ti.me/1wKaLtj

D EEP

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Dangerous Resonances
I see two future data directions that are
particularly disturbing. The first is data
colonization.
This is Shamina Singh, from the
MasterCard Center for Inclusive
Growth, speaking at a Data & Society
event, The Social, Cultural & Ethical

bit.ly/1GvDykR

Dimensions of Big Data.

...the big issue for us is economic inequality,

inclusive growth, the gap between the rich and the
poor, financial inclusion...
Here shes about to tell us the data that Mastercard tracks for
each transaction:

...it takes your credit card number, your date,

your time, the purchase amount, and what you
purchased. So right now there are about 10
petabytes, they tell me, living in Mastercards data
warehouse. At the Center for Inclusive Growth
were thinking about: how do we take those
analytics, how do we take all of that information,
and apply it in a way that addresses these serious
issues around inclusive growth?

D EEP

L A B

...around the world - and we all know whats

happening in Syria, weve all heard whats
happening in Somolia, refugees are traveling from
their home countries and going to live in refugee
camps in safe countries. Have you ever thought
about what it takes to move food and water
and shelter from places like the United States?
When everybody says, Were giving aid to the
Phillipines or Were giving aid to Syria what
does that actually mean? It means theyre shipping
water, theyre shipping rice, theyre shipping
tents, theyre shipping all of these things from
huge places around the world, usually developed
countries, into developing countries using all of
that energy, all of the fuel to take all of this stuff to
these countries and what happens is: usually the
host country is a little pissed off because theyve
got a bunch of people that they cant support inside
their country and they dont have any means
to support them. So one of the things that we
have been thinking about is, how do we use our
information, how do we use our resources, to help
at least address some of that? One of the answers:
digitize the food program. So instead of buying the
food from all of these countries, why not give each
refugee an electronic way of paying for their food,
their shelter, their water in a regular grocery store
in their home country?

31

D EEP

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L A B

...but the outcome is, that these people, these

refugees, who have left everything they know are
showing up in a new place and have the dignity
now to shop wherever Mastercard is accepted.
Can you imagine?
...again, working with the people at the bottom of
the pyramid, those who have least, to make sure
that we are closing the gap between the richest and
the poorest.

D EEP

L A B

So this is Mastercards worldwide plan.

33

D EEP

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L A B

Another worldwide plan comes from Facebook through internet.org wrd.cm/1wjXjKT

bit.ly/12E8BxF

drones delivering internet to unconnected places.

Googles Project Loon is the same as Facebooks plan, but with

balloons instead of drones. (In general, whenever you see a
corporate video with animated string and a little girls voice, you
should probably be terrified.)

D EEP

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35

dailym.ai/1uya2VJ

Between Mastercard controlling international aid and Facebook

and Google controlling internet access, a future of data colonization will be a complete rewriting of the dark spots on the map.
Another data direction thats disturbing and timely is data policing, a trend emerging from the dangerous overlap of predictive
policing, police militarization, and police protected from public
accountability.
Predictive policing is perhaps the natural conclusion of combining new big data methods with fairly established data-driven
policing. The majority of predictive policing research and application in the U.S. has been funded by grants from the National
Institute of Justice (a division of the DOJ). Were only in the last
year starting to see the implications of the first round of grants
issued in 2009. One of those grants was to the Chicago Police
Department. They worked with Illinois Institute of Technology
professor Miles Wernick to create a heat list of 400 people that
an algorithm predicted would be most likely to be involved in
violent crime. About 60 of the 400 have been personally visited
by the police, letting them know theyre being watched.
A Freedom of Information Act request for the list was denied.
Precrime is real, yall.

D EEP

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Wernick had the following to say about his predictive policing

work:

...the CPDs predictive program isnt taking

advantage of or unfairly profiling any specific
group. The novelty of our approach, he says,
is that we are attempting to evaluate the risk of
bit.ly/1soTuyK

violence in an unbiased, quantitative way.

Never trust unbiased and quantitative together.

huff.to/12Eds1R

The Illinois Legislature just introduced Senate Bill 1342 on

December 4, protecting police from being recorded by the public.

The bill would also discourage people from

recording conversations with police by making
unlawfully recording a conversation with police -or an attorney general, assistant attorney general,
state's attorney, assistant state's attorney or judge
-- a class 3 felony, which carries a sentence of two
to four years in prison.
In Chicago, this would mean that police can use all data
available to them to predict a citizens actions, but citizens cant
collect data on the police.
So now that were totally depressed about data colonization and
bit.ly/1IKMzdy

trends in data-driven policing, we need some Nina Simone to

revive us..

D EEP

I:
Nina:

L A B

Whats free to you?

Whats free to me? Same as it is to you.
You tell me.

I:
Nina:

No no no you tell me.

Its just a feeling. Its just a feeling. Its
like how do you tell somebody how it
feels to be in love? How are you going
to tell anybody who has not been in
love how it feels to be in love? You
can not do it to save your life. You can
describe things, but you cant tell em,
but you know it when it happens. Thats
what I mean by free. Ive had a couple
of times onstage when I really felt free,
and thats something else. Thats really
something else. Like all, all, like... Ill
tell you what freedom is to me: NO
FEAR. I mean, really, no fear. If I could
have that half of my life. No fear. Lots
of children have no fear. Thats the
closest way, thats the only way I can
describe it. Thats not all of it, but it is
something to really, really feel... wow...
Like a new way of seeing. Like a new
way of seeing something.

37

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slate.me/1wKlLqH

If freedom is no fear, its safe to say were far from that.

The Pentagon's 1033 program has transferred surplus military
equipment to state and local civilian law enforcement agencies
without charge since the 1990s. This equipment has varied from
mens shirts to MRAPs, and since the U.S. drawdown in Iraq and
Afghanistan
(Weve included an excerpt of objects distributed from the 1033
program in this book to you an idea of the range of objects distributed through the program.)

D EEP

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39

These are the most common items given to US police departments under the 1033 program. Complete data can be found at:
http://bit.ly/1A0MAEg

bit.ly/13hY9gb

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nyti.ms/1zKO5Z0

L A B

The New York Times visualized the locations of various giveaways from the 1033. Here you see 205 grenade launchers were
given to police, and where those went. Grenade launchers are
primarily used for smoke grenades and tear gas.
Im finding it hard to live in a world where predictive policing
exists, the government is giving police grenade launchers for
tear gas, and I cant go outside to protest because tear gas causes
miscarriage.

D EEP

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41

I think about this turkish woman all

the time.

theatln.tc/1zKOUB7

And I think about this standing man

in turkey, who started a protest by
silently staring at his own flag.

bit.ly/1spdRfe

D EEP

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Tangible Silence
Now the abstract terror is that silence will gobble
up (down) the words will overwhelm the
meaning, reinsert the void and the light will go
out and we will all be dead; and the dead are very
silent. By now weve given up magic so we cant
use ritual to force language into better health,
as we once did with the sun. We need some new
strategy. Needless to say we think of a rather
crafty one: we reduce it to a lack or absence and
make it powerless. We say that silence needs
and therefore is waiting to be broken: like
a horse that must be broken in. But we are still
frightened. And the impending ecological disaster
deepens our fear that one day the science will
not work, the language will break down and
the light will go out. We are terrified of silence,
so we encounter it as seldom as possible, even
if this means losing experiences we know to
be good ones, like children wandering alone or
unsupervised in the countryside. We say that
silence is a lack of something, a negative state. We
are terrified of silence and we banish it from our
lives.
Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence, 2008

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Ernesto Pujol is a performance artist who creates site-specific

works that use walking, vulnerability, space, human energy, and
silence as their materials.
The performance revealed how time is an incredibly elastic
construct. As the performers stood still, walked and gestured
slowly for 12 hours, their silence became an entity that
heightened not just their own but everyone elses awareness,
slowing down everything and everyone, filling and sensorially
expanding the dimensions of the room: its height, depth and
width. The silence emptied the room of noise; it rejected noise
(a noontime jazz concert on the floor below leaked up, but our
silence neutralized it), filling the room itself, as tangible as liquid,
as if the room was a water tank. Silence did not create a void;
it had a tangible body we could cut through with a knife... Our
Chicago public unexpectedly found silence again, a silence that
human beings need to sustain the human condition: for listening,
remembering, reflecting, discerning, deciding, healing and
evolving. Silence is a human right.

Ernesto Pujol. Sited

Body, Public Visions:
silence, stillness &
walking as Performance Practice.
2012.

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Heres an example of silence stopping a fight on a NY subway

watch for the snack guy - how much he affects with his silence

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Shadow Spaces
So were here working on projects related to privacy and
anonymity and the deep web, and Ive noticed that this weird
thing happens when I talk to people about coming here...
When I mention the deep web, people assume its a place full
of child porn and human trafficking. It reminds me of peoples
reactions when I mention Im from Arizona: they assume its
full of racism and racial profiling.
The deep web and Arizona are both imagined shadow spaces
to be avoided.

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To be sure, a lot of rough things have happened in Arizona. In a

2011 mass shooting, 18 people were shot including Representative
Gabrielle Giffords. 6 people died. In a 2002 mass shooting, three
nursing professors were killed on the University of Arizona campus. (This
happened while I was teaching there.)
The Oklahoma city bomber, Timothy McVeigh, developed and
tested bombs while living in Arizona.
Two of the 9/11 hijackers took flight lessons in Arizona.
It took Arizona voters three tries to pass Martin Luther King Day
as a holiday. From 1986-1992 the state lost hundreds of millions
of dollars due to boycotts. Most notably Stevie Wonder refused to
perform in Arizona and the Super Bowl pulled out of the state. I
was a kid then. I remember the defense of not having the holiday
was money - that the state couldnt afford another state holiday.
When the holiday finally passed, Columbus Day was taken
away, which has a lovely sort of balance.
Public Enemys song By the time I get to Arizona chronicles the
fight for the holiday.
Starin' hard at the postcards isn't it odd and unique?
Seein' people smile wild in the heat 120 degree
'Cause I wanna be free
What's a smilin' fact when the whole state's racist
bit.ly/1BFp1EU

Arizona has a long history of racist policing; especially when it

comes to border issues. In 2010 Arizona passed SB 1070, which
requires immigrants to carry proof of their legal status and requires police to determine a persons immigration status if they
have reasonable suspicion that a person is an immigrant. It basically demands racial profiling.

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But other things grow in these shadow spaces like Arizona.

The Sanctuary Movement started at the Southside Presbyterian
Church in Tucson, Arizona in 1980. It provided housing and
other support for refugees from Central America - especially
El Salvador and Guatemala. It expanded to include over 500
congregations nationwide. A friend of mine in grade school had
a Guatemalan family secretly living in his house. He didnt
tell me until we were in college.
There arent many images of the Sanctuary movement because
providing refuge and sanctuary are by necessity quiet acts.
In researching this talk, I found that there are new sanctuary
movements popping up all over the US - again providing refuge
to immigrants.

bit.ly/16heZ06

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bit.ly/1uygP0F
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No More Deaths and Humane Borders are two southern Arizona

groups that primarily care for immigrants by the simple, quiet
act of putting water in the desert.
Members of both groups have been prosecuted for leaving water
and for driving ailing immigrants to the hospital. Carrying water
into the desert and driving dying people to the hospital become
dangerous acts.

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The dark web and anonymity on the internet are popularly seen
as shadow, criminal spaces. People ask: Why do you need to be
anonymous? They say: You have nothing to worry about if you
have nothing to hide.

But I learned inArizona that in the shadows, in anonymity, there

is power - the Wild West is a good place for making silent but
revolutionary change.

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Becoming More Dangerous

This is an image from the second episode of Black Mirror. This
is not an encouragement to watch Black Mirror - you should
have a therapist on speed dial if you watch this show. But in this
episode, Bing ends up being richly paid to perform the voice of
dissent.
Two years ago I was doing this insane 5-day drive across the
country, just me and my dog, to move from NorCal to NYC, and I
stopped the day after Christmas in Albuquerque to meet up with
my friends Sha and Rachel. Rachel and I had recently spoken
together at a big data/marketing conference, playing the role of
the voice of dissent talking ethics when we were supposed to
be talking money.
And I said to Sha and Rachel, I feel like when we show up and
give these dissenting talks for money, were holding the glass to
our throats like the end of the second Black Mirror episode. Its
a performance; it makes the power feel like theyve earned their
badge for listening to the dissent, but what does it change?
One of them asked what I was thinking about doing instead, and
I said:
Im thinking about how to become more dangerous.
Now, this seemed complicated at the time - how do I become
more dangerous compared to big data? Right now, how can I
possibly be more dangerous when I cant even take to the streets
in protest because I dont want tear gas to cause a miscarriage?

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But increasingly I think that, for me (and maybe for you)

becoming more dangerous can also mean finding a quiet gesture
that helps to create less fear and more freedom.
This works in all spaces both offline and online, but online
spaces strike me as particularly rich spaces for invisible gestures.
A few examples of this kind of work:
Harlo Holmes foxy doxxing project, providing more information
and context about abuse online.
Maddy just described her safe selfies project, giving individuals
an aggressive power to protect their own files.
All the people who fill in Open Street Map data in areas of
humanitarian crisis or natural disaster to help aid workers find
their way.
Julian Oliver and Daniel Vasilyev teaching people how to use Tor
and other tools for anonymity.
As we go forward as a collective, I hope we think about how we
might become more dangerous.

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Becoming more dangerous means answering:

How do I offer sanctuary?

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In the midst of uncontrolled monitoring of our behavior online,

of the commodification of consciousness; in the midst of data
colonization and predictive policing:
How can I build refuge?

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Becoming more dangerous means answering, in the middle of

hostile environments:

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How do I carry more water?

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C Y B E R
F E M I
N I S M
[s-brfe-m-ni-zm]

CLAIRE L. EVANS

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A wave of thought, criticism, and art that emerged

in the early 1990s, galvanizing a generation of
feminists, before bursting along with the dot-com
bubble. The term was coined simultaneously by
bit.ly/1Am9mq3
bit.ly/12zBXgF

the British cultural theorist Sadie Plant and the

Australian art collective VNS Matrix in 1991, during
the heady upwelling of cyberculturethat crucial
moment in which the connective technology of the
Internet was moving into the public sphere.

CyberFeminism looked and sounded like this, basically:

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Thats the 1991 A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century, by VNS Matrix.

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bit.ly/12Swdi2

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The CyberFeminists were techno-utopian thinkers who saw technology as a way to dissolve sex and gender divisions. Of course,
they knew that the digital world, and the cultures emerging from
it, speculative and otherwise, contained as many gendered power dynamics as the real world; the term CyberFeminist itself is
partially a critique of the misogynistic overtones of cyberpunk
literature in the 80s. Still, the CyberFeminists believed in the Internet as a tool of feminist liberation.
There was a lot to love on the web back then. Feminists emerging from a tradition of nonlinear writing and art practices saw
potential in non-narrative hypertext as a medium, and feminist
critics compared web connectivity to the consciousness-raising
groups of 70s third-wave feminism, where women came together to
bit.ly/1zcmwXm

discuss their similarities and differences. From Leonardo, MITs

arts journal, in 1998: the question is not one of dominance and
control or of submission and surrender to machines; instead it is
one of exploring alliances, affinities, and coevolutionary possibilities... between women and technology.
A clear definition of CyberFeminism is almost impossible to

bit.ly/1whpppX

pin down. In fact, at the 1997 First CyberFeminist International,

the first proper CyberFeminist conference, attendees agreed
not to define the term, instead collectively authoring 100 AntiTheses, a laundry list of things which CyberFeminism was not.

bit.ly/1zcnIdq

The list includes: not for sale, not postmodern, not a fashion
statement, not a picnic, not a media hoax, not science fiction,
andmy personal favoritenot about boring toys for boring
boys.

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Not boring indeed. For CyberFeminists, cyberspace was a sinuous alternate world ripe for creative experimentation. They
made revolutionary CD-ROMs (like Linda Dement's "Cyberflesh

bit.ly/12SGgUa

Girlmonster") built web-based multimedia artworks, and tin-

bit.ly/1GidviO

kered with early Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to

worldbuild outside of cultural patriarchy, taking any form they
pleased as they moved through the Internet seeking pleasure
and knowledge. They even made video games. Most illustrious
among them: All New Gen, another VNS Matrix project.

In All New Genseen above, in 1995, in a viewing kiosk at YYZ

Gallery in Torontofemale cybersluts and anarcho cyberterrorists hack into the databanks of Big Daddy Mainframe, an
Oedipal embodiment of the techno-industrial complex, to sow
the seeds of a New World Disorder and end the rule of phallic
power.

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Logging into All New Gen, the player is first asked: What is
your gender? Male, Female, Neither. The only right answer is
Neitheranything else will send the player into a loop that
ends the game. Energy in All New Gen is measured in G-slime;
in the battle against the Mainframe and his henchmen (Circuit
Boy, Streetfighter and other total dicks), the player gets help
from mutant shero DNA Sluts. Can you even imagine?

The DNA Sluts, still from All New Gen. Image courtesy of Virginia Barratt.

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Revisiting CyberFeminism in 2014 is a joy. For one, its fun. The

language is dynamite. There just aren't many feminists on the
web currently writing manifestos that include phrases like
the clitoris is a direct line to the matrix or we are the future
cunt both memorable lines from VNS Matrixs Cyberfeminist

bit.ly/1vWiVwY

Manifesto for the 21st Century at least not on the blogs Im

reading. And the enthusiasm for the nascent possibilities of the
web is palpable, even contagious.
Cyberspace has the potential, explained the novelist Beryl

bit.ly/1utfvx1

Fletcher in an 1999 essay for CyberFeminism: Connectivity,

bit.ly/1DiS2YZ

Critique + Creativity, to stretch imagination and language to the

limit; it is a vast library of information, a gossip session, and a
politically charged emotional landscape. In short, a perfect place
for feminists.
Or, as the scholar Donna Haraway wrote, more succinctly, in her
seminal 1991 essay, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology,

bit.ly/1uqRNRg

and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century: Id rather

be a cyborg than a goddess.
Of course, these techno-utopian expectations haven't exactly
become our reality. CyberFeminist thinkers and artists had the
Internet pegged as a surefire playground for female thought and
expression, but being a woman online in 2014 comes with the
same caveats and anxieties that have always accompanied being
female in meatspace. Fears of being silenced, threatened, or bullied are as real in the digital realm as IRL. Women like the (sheroic) videogame critic Anita Sarkeesian are routinely harassed for
simply pointing out that we can do better at representing women
in the media wrapped around our technology.

bit.ly/1GqD4w9

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And anonymity! Anonymity, which CyberFeminists championed

thecut.io/1x7fgh8

as a method for transcending gender, is now a primary enabler

of violently misogynistic language all over the webin YouTube
comments, on forums, and in the email inboxes and Twitter
@replies of women with public opinions about technology. Its
not that the CyberFeminists failed. Its that as the Venn diagrams
of digital and real life have edged into near-complete overlap,
the problems of the real world have become the problems of
the digital world. The web is no longer a separate space; we are
inseparable from the web.

VNS Matrix postcard, 1994. Left to Right: Francesca Da Rimini, Virginia Barratt, Julianne
Pierce, Josephine Starrs. Image courtesy of Virgina Barratt.

Still, there is hope. As Virginia Barratt, a founding member of

VNS Matrix, wrote in 2014, cyberfeminism was a catalytic moment, a collective memetic mind-virus that mobilised geek girls
everywhere and unleashed the blasphemic techno-porno code
that made machines pleasurable and wet...as I watch pussy riot
declining to be clean and proper bodies in a most filthy way,
i feel the morphing cyberg feminist lineage stretching through
time and space.

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Quite literally, actuallynext year, a remix of the VNS Matrix

Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century will be sent into
space as part of an art project called Forever Now.

bit.ly/1wENbhO

Back here on Earth, powerful conversations about women,

gender, power, and technology are happening all over the web.
The platforms are different than the CyberFeminists anticipated.
We dont consciousness-raise through CD-ROMs, hang out as
avatar Amazons in virtual worlds, or author non-narrative hyperlinked novelsinstead, we share ideas in Facebook groups,
launch online magazines, and deploy hashtags to try to bring
issues to light.
Its less countercultural, but we have a bigger audience than
ever. And while touchstones of terribleness remainthe revelations of Jian Ghameshis abuse, Gamergate, Ray Rice punching

bit.ly/1whwoiE

his wifeat least were doing something with the attention shit

bit.ly/1yESjNX

brings to the fan: talking, educating, getting mad.

In the cultural aftermath of Gamergate, Ive been holding onto
CyberFeminism and its fruits as totems for a saner parallel
world. It consoles me to see that while technology has always
been gendered, the seeds of possibility have been there from the
beginning. We can use technological tools to build the landscapes
of our dreams, rather than to model the constructs of our existing reality. Its not too late for us. While the pasts failed utopian
aspirations demonstrate what could have been, they also show
us what we could still become.

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Headline from Australian newspaper The Age, about VNS Matrix, 1995.

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What can we learn from the activists, intellectuals, prophets

and weirdos of first wave Internet cyberculture? We lionize
Stewart Brand, Lawrence Lessig, and their fellows (and rightly
so) but we seem to have forgotten those who took stances
that turned out unfashionable, made predictions which proved
irrelevant, or spoke for voices that never quite found purchase
online.
We need to remember CyberFeminism. We need draw VNS Matrix up from the depths and inject a little into our veins. Its good
medicine. These womens voicesweird, angry, hilarious, and
staunchly defiant of the (Big Daddy) Mainframeare sorely missing from todays many fractured conversations about feminism
in online spaces. For every screed about ethics in gaming journalism, for every dismissal of womens legitimate grievances about
their portrayal in gaming or treatment in online comment sections, for every death threat or doxxing attempt lodged against a
woman online, I long for the howling future cunts to come along
and rattle some sense into the servers.

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Part Two: An Oral History of VNS Matrix

While putting together this research, I began an
email correspondence with the members of VNS
Matrix. They were hugely generous, opening up
their archives and sharing first-person stories
about their experiences as pioneering woman
artists in the early Internet age. We decided to put
all of the material together into a history of VNS
Matrix, told in their own words.
Together, we share this history with the Cyberfeminists past, present, and future.

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VNS Matrix poster, mid 1990s. Image via Josephine Starrs.

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Virginia Barratt:

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There is a narrative arc to the genesis

of VNS Matrix which goes something
like this: "The VNS Matrix emerged
from the cyberswamp during a
southern Australian summer circa
1991, on a mission to hijack the toys
from technocowboys and remap
cyberculture with a feminist bent."

Francesca da Rimini:

Our group formed over 20 years

ago, and it really was another world,
another lifetime.

Virginia Barratt:

We were living in Adelaide at the time.

I was EO of the Australian Network
for Art and Technology, a position
Francesca had just left to move onto
other works and projects. Julianne
and Josie were both studying and
making art and performance. We were
all involved in a mess of generative
creative production.

Josephine Starrs:
Australia was avant-garde in the new
media art scene, and Australians
are generally early adopters of new
technologies, perhaps due to physical
distance. Australian female artists are
also innovators and are not afraid to

bit.ly/1BBMDdA

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critique the establishment.

That irreverence and humour could
perhaps be the influence of our
Indigenous culture, and the Irish
convict culture?
Virginia Barratt:

Francesca had been involved in a

project of Australian Network for Art
and Technology to connect artists with
machines, facilitating artist access
to institutions and their resources,
specifically computers and software.
This kind of access was unprecedented,
since computers were not personal
and certainly not ubiquitous. It
was the mission of ANAT to create
connections between art and science.
The outcomes were surprising and notso-surprising, in terms of production
artists intervening in the processes
of technological productionand
socio-cultural interventions, as the
machines were mostly in service to the
patriarchal overlords of commerce,
science, educational institutions. Access
by women was limited and usually
mediated by a male "tech. The idea
of "play" and "creative production" or

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simply "research" with no outcomes

that were necessarily useful in terms of
capitalism were anathema to the tech
industries.
Josephine Starrs:

VNS Matrix predated the 2000s trend

for game-art in the art world. We began
by making up playful narratives around
our female protagonist All New Gen
and her DNA sluts. This was 1990, way
before Lara Croft, when the idea of a
female hero in a computer game was
unheard of. We created art installations
that included game stills for light boxes,
narrative sound and video works, and
interactive art.

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Invite for All New Gen Exhibition,1995. Image via the Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art.

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bit.ly/1urlUIf

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Virginia Barratt:

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The technological landscape was

very dry, Cartesian, reverent. It was
uncritical and overwhelmingly maledominated. It was a masculinist space,
coded as such, and the gatekeepers
of the code (cultural and logos)
maintained control of the productions
of technology.

Francesca da Rimini:

In the early 1990s, informational

capitalism hadnt quite taken root. The
Internet was far less regulated, far less
commodified. More of a maul and a
maw than a mall. There seemed to be
endless possibilities, it was a field of
immanence, of becoming. And it was
slow, low-res, glitch. Before glitch
became a cultural movement. But its
easy to be nostalgic for that time.

Virginia Barratt:

It was into this environment that VNS

Matrix was spawned. We entered
into the cultural space circuitously,
imagining a feminist approach to
the production of pornographythis
was our starting point, and the way
we generated an aesthetics of slime,
moving quickly into a machineslime symbiosis, as antithetical to the
brittle beige fleshless gutless realm of

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technological production. A stream of

consciousness writing session which
was more like an exudation of slime
and viscera morphing through critical,
feminist, pornographic texts birthed the
"Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st
Century.
By the latter part of 1991 the manifesto
was the centerpiece of a large billboard
image of the same name, framed by
cybercunts, in a field of genetic material
morphing into new representations
of women, gender and sexuality in
technospace, both primordial, ancient
and futuristic, fantastical and active,
not passive objects. The blasphemous
text was badass and complex, hot,
wet and mind-bending, in service to a
feminism that was multiple.

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The Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century in installation, 1995. Image via Virginia Barratt.

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At the same time that we

portmanteau'ed cyber and feminism,
Sadie Plant was working on developing

bit.ly/1Am9mq3

a curriculum around the same

name in another part of the world
simultaneous synapse firings across
the matrix of slime. One of her students
was on holiday in Australia and
happened across the billboard, on the
side of the Tin Sheds Gallery in Sydney,
took a photo, framed it and presented it
to Sadie. A connection was forged, flesh
met. This is one understanding of how
feminism entered cyber and the word
became flesh.
Francesca da Rimini:

The cyberfeminist community was

crazy, wild, political, passionate. Deeply
fun. It was lived politics and generated
abiding friendships and networks.
There was a whole lotta love. I guess
it was very Euro, but then there were
some powerful women in Canada and
The States. Like Jamaican-Canadian
digital artist Camille Turner. And
Carmin Karasic from the Electronic
Disturbance Theatre.

bit.ly/1Gr1mGw

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EDT did one of the first Distributed

Denial of Service (DDoS) actions
Floodnet circa 1998, way
before Anonymous, in solidarity
with the Mexican Zapatistas. Their
action provoked the US military
into retaliating against the DDoS
participants by launching hostile
Java applets back to their computers,
crashing them. I know, I was
online in New York participating in
the DDoS at the time. The militarys
involvement only came to light later.
Virginia Barratt:

We honored the lineage of

Cyberfeminismnaturally Donna

bit.ly/12A8sv4

Haraway with her cyborg/goddess

dichotomy was one of our sheroes.
Others who were working in the field
at the time were people like Brenda

bit.ly/13eiN0G

Laurel, Sherri Turkle, Allucquere

bit.ly/16cxcf6

Roseanne Stone.

bit.ly/12A8HGC

Irreverence, agency, power, sexuality,

intensities, guerilla feminism, porn,
humour, music. Post-punk/still punk.
The abject and subversion of the clean
and proper body. These were some
of the hallmarks of our productive
approaches, influences and methods.

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VNS Matrix postcard, depicting their concept of "G-Slime," 1994.

Image via Virginia Barratt.

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Josephine Starrs:

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It appeared that few women were

playing computer games in the early
nineties. One reason for this is that the
games industry ignored women and
girls for more than a decade, fearing
that if girls joined the fun, the boys
would be unhappy about losing their
exclusive boy-zone.
So VNS Matrix had fun making our
own art games for public exhibition,
hacking the game engines, slashing
the dominant game narratives and
critiquing the content of game culture
with humor.
From the enormous positive responses
and feedback we received from young
women artists and gamers from both
in Australia and internationally, it
was obvious that many women were
really annoyed with being actively
excluded from game culture, which was
obviously becoming a huge cultural
force.

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Still from All New Gen. Image via Josephine Starrs.

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Virginia Barratt:

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What happened to cyberfeminism?

Why did the movement die out? What
happened, of course, was that the
narratives around liberation from
racism, sexism and so on in the brave
new virtual world were promises
which were empty. New strategies
needed to be developed for battling
rampant bullying, bigotry, hatespeech
and so on. Cyberfeminisms deployed
multifariously and the idea of a
*movement* was no longer relevant.

Francesca da Rimini:

I think the political and cultural ideas

that this movement inspired continue
to evolve and shapeshift. Check out the
Bloodbath collaboration with a roller

bit.ly/1shmDRY

derby team for example. That could be

read as a cyberfeminist intervention.
Chicks, machines, extreme sports. Or
the growth of female hacker clubs,
workshops and events like G.hack and

bit.ly/1uruWFf

Genderchangers. In the global South

bit.ly/1whGrUX

there are many projects fostering a

critical socially-engaged technological
literacy, and women are driving and
participating in many of these. Such
projects dont need to be labeled
"cyberfeminist," but they embody some
of the cyberfeminist ethos and attitude.

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I think VNS Matrix was doing a job.

And in a cultural space that was
coded as heavily masculinist, our
job as female-identified people, and
as feminists, was to overthrow the
gatekeepers in order to access a
powerful new technology which had
huge implications for domination
and control by the patriarchy and by
capitalist systems. We did what we had
to do at the time. Then our job was
done. Leave the definitions to someone
else.
Later, the field became itself more
fully, and was able to address the
layered political aspects of the
cultural conditions of the information
technology fieldbut at the time we
just needed to be fast and fierce and
overthrow the gatekeepers. We had to
break the safe.

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Francesca da Rimini:

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Cyberfeminism is one of many feminisms,

and feminism has not gone away.

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VNS Matrix, Silicon Angel. Image via Josephine Starrs.

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W H A T
I
S
G O I N G
O
N
ALLISON BURTCH

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We live in dark times. Some of us are just becoming aware of

the global struggle, others can't feed their children. The state of
capitalism is this: you work for $10 an hour for 35 hours a week
on a schedule that constantly changes. How to live a life.
And yet! There's an app for that. Monitor your heart rate and
the DNA of your future progeny, swipe left on all the men in an
entire city, ignore an advertisement for :25 seconds so you can
talk to your friends. Every part of you is a liability, all problems
are potential profit. The fish in the ocean will be gone by 2050.
I want to tell stories of survival, of living here, on this planet, in
this time. Of fighting with eyes open and learning technology
with a heart hurting. Stories of life, of forgiveness, of healing,
of what can be, are rare. The darkness has not overtaken
completely. What is left, despite all odds, is a kernel of human
kindness.
Three years ago in December 2011, the NYPD was in its final
stages of dismantling Occupy Wall Street. I was sleeping on
my friend Ashley's couch, escaping a bedbug-infested living
room I was crashing in after a friend had bailed on apartment
searching, desperately searching Craigslist for a new place to
live. The world was erupting. I had gone to Occupy Wall Street
at the end of the first week of its existence that September. I
survived by occasionally grabbing food from the Occupy kitchen,
the square space in the center of Zuccotti Park. I slept there a
couple times. The kitchen had no running water but it had still
been graded by the New York Department of Sanitation as safe.
Actually, I don't know if it was actually graded, but there was a
big "A" on a sign. The food was provided by generous donations
from kind folks around the world and also New Jersey. There
were raucous infiltrators and a drum circle.

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We were changing the world. The NYPD barricaded the bull

and kept it barricaded for years henceforth. We were pepper
sprayed, arrested and beaten. To escape, I would retire to
Ashley's couch and binge-watch Friday Night Lights, a sappy and
innocuous story about love and high-school football in a small
town in Texas. Wall Street was guarded. There were free clothes
and doctors. After about a month, the NYPD started dropping off
drug addicts, the recently-released from Riker's Island prison,
and homeless people a couple blocks away and telling them to
get free food at Zuccotti. Occupy was a beautiful horror: frenetic,
chaotic, pure. It changed my life.

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In the middle of this, I applied to graduate school.

Occupy was shut down in a series of federally-coordinated raids.
I went on a bike tour, by myself, from Boston to Prince Edward
Island and back.
On my bike tour, like during Occupy, I had to talk to and trust
strangers. There was no algorithm that could save me when I
was biking without cell service and had to find a place to sleep.
One day, after crossing the border at Lupec, Maine to Campobello
Island, taking a ferry and then struggling up the hills of Deer
Island, I was stuck. The ferry taking me to New Brunswick
existed, but the campground didn't. It was getting dark.
An older man offered to drive me to the other side of the island,
to a campground I had passed ten hilly miles earlier, but he and
his wife ended up feeding me and putting me up in daughter's
room, a daughter already grown and gone. He was old, and born
and raised on the island.
Fast forward three years.
I am neither a Luddite nor a cyborg. I learned how to code
because I didn't want a bunch of dudes in Silicon Valley telling
me what to do.
I'm teaching a "Critical Theory of Technology" class at the School
for Poetic Computation, an artist-run school in New York. Im
teaching critical theory to makers and technologists because we
need to know our history. We're not coding in a vacuum. Many
of todays most powerful tech creators had a utopian vision that
the increased interconnectedness of global telecommunications
infrastructure would lead to a more equitable society. Instead,
we're left with a massive centralization of wealth and power for
a handful of people.

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What is going on? And how do you pay rent?

When we talk about technology, we talk about people, money
and power. The dominant marketing pitch is that more and
better algorithms are the answer to saving ourselves. But theyre
not the answer for saving one another. We are.
Take care of each other. We have the world to win.

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JILLIAN C. YORK

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The revolution will not be tweeted

(but if it is, please use this hashtag)
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear
(except drones)
Encryption works
(except when it doesn't, in which case you're fucked)
Everyone has the right to freedom of speech
(except terrorists, and we'll decide who's a terrorist
<em>thank you very much</em>
and well, frankly, anyone whose politics we don't like)
Harassment will not be tolerated
(unless it comes from us)
Lean in!
(so they can see your cleavage better)
Check this box if you agree with the terms and conditions
(which we know you didn't read)
We will not share any of your personal information
(well, you know, except with the NSA and GCHQ and maybe the Mossad)
Rest assured, your data is safe with us.

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Y
O
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O R N O
DENISE CARUSO

U
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We have been taught to fear predators in society the suicide

bombers, the high school shooters, police forces armed with the
machinery of war. But on a macro level, parasites are far more
pernicious. While predators are lethal, they lack ambition. They
kill and move on. Parasites, on the other hand, move right in.
Parasites have no life of their own. They live off their hosts,
a strategy which also neatly describes the non-consensual,
co-dependent relationship between data brokers and us, their
brokees. Unless you were into technology in the 1980s, you
probably dont remember the invasion of the first generation
of these data parasites. They moved in and latched on while the
transition to digital technology was in full force, as companies
came to realize that computers provided a powerful new toolkit
for data collection and analysis.
Opportunistic in the way of all
parasites, this new breed of
entrepreneurs saw the end of
the line for the old, static mailing list business, and imagined
how much more money could
be made by computerizing
them. Digital lists -- now called
"databases" -- were simple to
combine with other lists and
easy to sort for specific information, all without paper or
printing costs. Before long,
databases of public and private
information were available
that contained wide-ranging
and very personal information
peoples names and adbit.ly/1A6aXR8

dresses, husbands, wives, and

exes, children, parents, credit histories, criminal records, Social
Security numbers, spending patterns, phone numbers, insurance
companies, accident reports, ad infinitum.

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Right from the start, the data suckers were unencumbered by a

moral compass that might oblige them to ask permission before
selling our information. Most of the data they collected were
from public records, so they were not obliged to ask. But they did
not mention that technology allowed all these records to be assembled into an unofficial dossier, accessible in a few keystrokes,
that was far more revealing than a single file from any one place.
And this was before smart phones with cameras and GPS trackers, and social media, and cookies, and purchase-tracking cards
at the supermarket, and advertising networks that know and tell
everywhere you've been on the web.

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SETTING THE HOOK

Given how much of our personal data is flying around online today, its hard to imagine what it was like when the parasites were
first setting their hooks.
In 1987, the BBC provided a window onto that time with a documentary titled Secret Society. In Episode 2 of the series, Were
All Data Now: Secret Data Banks, reporter Duncan Campbell
invited a few Saturday shoppers in the town square to type their
names into a computer connected to an online database. He then
recorded their reactions to what they saw.

Interview subject reacts to seeing her name, her husbands name and address, accessed
from a commercial database.

The screen on the left is the sum total of information stored in

the commercial database about Anne Watson and her husband,
Martin Hawkins: name, address, and polling place. Watsons
reaction? Thats disgusting. I dont see why anyone should have
access to that kind of information.

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Imagine her reaction today, if she saw this website:

As usual, the U.S. was light years ahead in the commercial

exploitation of its citizens. Just one year after Secret Society
aired, in 1988, American Express announced that it was betting
the ranch on its $100 million Genesis Project. According to a
company vice president, the programs goal was to make sure
the company's nearly 300 mainframes and minicomputers can
create dossiers on the tastes of its cardholders.
If a customer was traveling to Paris, American Express would
generate a personalized itinerary before he even gets there,
according to a company vice president. We'll know his taste
in restaurants, special interests and shopping, and we could
work with establishments to arrange even big-ticket purchases.
Apparently their customers cant figure out what they want to
buy on their own.

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THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. FOR NOW, ANYHOW

The Genesis Program was one of the first public instantiations
of database marketing, a euphemism for using the personal
information you didnt know you were giving us (and wouldnt
have, had you known) to send you advertisements that are targeted at you directly. Before the commercial Internet and World
Wide Web, as mentioned earlier, that list included names and
addresses, partners and exes, children and parents, credit histories, criminal records, et al. But now, add to that list:
The drugs you take
The websites you visit
The chronic illnesses you have
The subjects of the emails you send
The comments you leave on blogs
The movies and TV shows you watch
The books you read
The cafe are walking past
The restaurants you like, or dont
The shoes you buy (or want to buy)

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And, in one of the great betrayals of the online community, what

you type into your search engine is on the list as well.
All three of the major search engines now own online advertising
companies. Googles CEO stated an interview that people (read:
our customers, which by the way is not you or me) should think
of Google first as an advertising system, then as a provider of
other kinds of services, ostensibly including search. The search
function is merely a traffic generator for their ads.
If that isnt comprehensive enough, the reach of the data
parasites has extended to smart phones and tablets. Proximity
marketing distributes ads to people in a particular location
(ostensibly if they wish to receive them). They can find you by
which cell tower youre closest to, or by your Bluetooth or WiFi,
or your GPS.
The parasites who are very good at all these tactics are engaged
in yet another euphemistic activity customer nurturing
which communicates with each target at the right time, using the
right information to yield the purchase.
YOU ARE (NOT) YOUR CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE
And what do these fat little data leeches make from all this information weve given them? They get to calculate what were
worth to them, a.k.a. our Customer Lifetime Value, a.k.a. CLV.
Reminiscent of the equally sensitive economics term value of
a statistical life (VSL), customer lifetime value is a prediction
of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with
a customer. According to marketers, this is a very important
calculation because it represents how much money they should
spend on you, before you cost them more than you are worth.

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Somewhere between now and the time you die, companies may
also use your personal information to segment you into sub-categories based on when you last bought something, and how much
it cost, and how frequently you buy things. Or they may use it to
predict what marketing tactics you will respond to. For instance,
which of these very important magazine covers will you pick up
in line at the grocery store?

One of the excuses that data parasites use for their collection
habits is that audiences spurn traditional advertising and tend
to leave the room, either physically or psychologically, during ad
time. They believe they can circumvent this aversion by knowing even more about us. A he term for this particular invasion
is consumer relationship marketing, cultivating a relationship
with a company that encourages consumers to give up information that can help the company fine-tune discriminatory sales
pitches, and to make sure that we dont somehow tune them out.

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107

Parasites and hosts can and do evolve together, as long as the

parasite doesnt take things too far. But once the hosts have had
enough, they can start the rejection process. They can scratch
away the tick, pull off the leech; we can shut them out, cut off
their data supply. Once we reject their "nurturing," they will try
even harder to stay attached. But if we persist, they will have no
choice but to move out, and move on.
This persistence requires a change in roles. Most of us didnt
choose this co-dependent relationship with the data parasites,
but many of us did choose the convenience that in turn sacrificed
our privacy. But now we have the tools to become predator to
the parasite. Code is code. They used it to invade. We'll use it to
subvert the invasion.
Until this week, until Deep Lab, I didnt think it was possible. But
the women in this group who they are, what they do have
changed my mind. They wield technology like a finely honed
blade. They are ninja, not geisha. The parasites think they have
tactics? Well, these ladies have got tactics too, and skills that they
are teaching to anyone who cares to learn. They think they can
predict our behavior? They should think again. Because I predict
that our future and theirs is a lot less predictable than they
think.

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N E
O R
N F
S T
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INGRID BURRINGTON

T
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S

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Fiber Dowsing Around The Google Offices

For the last year Ive been trying to see the internet without
looking at a screen. Screens are, for the most part, how we see
and conceive of the internet--we peer into scrying mirrors, conjuring content from clouds. But while the difference or distance
between online and offline life becomes increasingly fictional,
the physical infrastructure of the internet--cables, data centers,
towers, satellites--remains pretty opaque to the average user.
To some extent, infrastructures opacity is a function of its effectiveness. It literally means below the surface. Its designed to
be ignored, not so much invisible as hidden in plain sight. Power and infrastructure operate in similar ways, and the physical
signifiers of the latter often act as a trail of breadcrumbs to the
former.Let's start with urban markup language. You've probably
seen this. Whenever a contractor or construction company plans
to do street excavation, utility companies mark out the location
of their nearby underground cables so that the excavator knows
to watch out for them. Theres a federal color-code standard for
sidewalk markings. Orange lines indicate the category of "communications, alarm, signal lines, cables and conduit," which
means that the underlying infrastructure could include internet cables, television cables, ISDN and telephone lines. These
spray-painted markings are ephemeral, so finding them is a bit
like a scavenger hunt, with an itinerary determined by recently
issued street excavation permits or known infrastructure.
When I started looking for visible signs of the Internet on the
streets of New York City, I figured a good place to begin would be
places that definitely had network exchanges or data centers.
I didn't necessarily seek out places tied to surveillance and law
enforcement, but networks attract networks and power attracts
power--state and corporate actors apparently concentrate in
infrastructure space.

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111 Eighth Avenue is among the more famous sites of New York City
interconnection. Built in 1932, it was initially a Port Authority warehouse and transport center. In 1998, Taconic Investment Partners turned it into a carrier hotel, a co-location center at which
communications infrastructures converge. In 2010, Google purchased the building for nearly $2 million. While Google uses a
majority of the building for its own office space, the carrier hotel
and a number of ISPs, startups, and ground-level retail remains.
During a rare opportunity I had to visit the third floor of the
building for an event, I became giddy at the sight of all the major
ISP names on office doors. I'm so close to the Internet!, I thought.
111 Eighth Avenue is an interchange, like a cloverleaf in a highway. From there, data resonates outward, through cables under
the street and signals in the air.

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The streets surrounding 111 Eighth Avenue have lots of orange

cable markings. mostly at the edges of the road or in the bike
lane, mostly on the streets rather than the avenues, and mostly
headed west toward the Hudson (where, presumably, they join
up with underwater cables toward New Jersey or head down the
West Side Highway). At the intersection of 16th Street and 9th Avenue, some of the cable markings swerve south, trailing off on a
curb that separates a bike lane from vehicular traffic. Following
that arrow leads to Chelsea Market. Formerly part of the National
Biscuit Company's factory, the block-long building is now known
to most New Yorkers as an upscale mall and food court. Restricted-access elevators lead to the offices of several cable channels,
real estate companies, and other tenants. Google leases three
floors of the building.
This is documented
in Adam Goldman
and Matt Apuzzo's
Enemies Within.

111 Eighth Avenue is also home to the NYPD Intelligence

Division, formed after 9/11 and made notorious following reports
of its massively overreaching operations spying on Muslims.

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The earliest reference to the existence of the Intelligence Division

in the Chelsea office that I found was a redacted NYPD document
detailing plans for the 2004 Republican National Convention. The
executive summary notes that an "Intelligence Fusion Center"
was located in Chelsea Market. Apparently it served as the "main
intelligence gathering and dissemination center." A 2012 document made by Chelsea Market's developer Jamestown Properties
lists the NYPD as an office tenant occupying 48,000 square feet
(for comparison, Google occupies 108,000 square feet).
On the 15th street side of Chelsea Market, a line of orange arrows with the label "L3" continue towards 10th Avenue. They
become harder to spot in some places because the street itself
isn't in great repair. Many hide underneath parked cars. One ECS
manhole cover on the street has become so worn down its label
is almost invisible. Loading docks, a parking garage, and a lumber yard share the block with expensive coffee shops and office
space. In October 2014, defense contractor Palantir purchased
seven of eight floors of a building on this street. I assume real
estate reporters didn't remark on this convenient location shift
(Palantir's client list includes the NYPD and the FBI) because they
thought it was too obvious to bother pointing out.

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Crossing underneath the High Line on 15th Street, the L3 arrows

lead to an opening on the sidewalk, out of which a black tube
filled with cables emerges. It is unclear whether this is the end of
the line and those markings are a wild goose chase, or merely a
series of cables on a detour.

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Above the street, an enclosed footbridge connects the Chelsea

Market to 85 10th Avenue, another former National Biscuit
Company building turned into a mix of luxury retail, technical
infrastructure, and law enforcement. The building is home to a
Level 3 colocation center, ground-level expensive restaurants,
360,000ft of Google offices, Met Hennessy's New York offices,
and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).
Begun as a partnership between the NYPD and the FBI in 1980,
the JTTF now has offices in 103 cities, 71 of which were created
after 9/11. The history provided by the JTTF about itself doesn't
provide much insight on how long it has been a resident of 85
10th Avenue. It is unclear if JTTF chose the space because of its
proximity to internet cables or because its raw postindustrial
interior accommodated their unusual architectural requirements
(Apuzzo and Goldman describe a "cavernous" SCIF on the tenth
floor). That footbridge connecting the building to Chelsea Market supposedly is a direct link between the Intelligence Division
and the JTTF, although it remains locked--communication across
agencies is apparently Not Their Thing.

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There aren't many orange markings visible on the other side

of 85 Tenth Avenue by the West Side Highway, but there is one
remaining landmark in this accidental tour of luxury-as-cloaking-device: Pier 57, currently under development by Youngwoo
& Associates to be a luxury retail site, rebranded as SuperPier. A
former MTA bus repair center, the building is more familiar to
some as "Guantanamo on the Hudson" from its use as an arrest
holding site for an estimated 1,200 protesters during the 2004
RNC.
In a press statement following several settlements to RNC cases
in 2014, the National Lawyers Guild described conditions in Pier
57 circa 2004:

...cyclone fencing was used to create cages in a

warehouse-like area still covered with grease
and brake fluid. Signs still hung from the walls
warning workers to wear hazmat suits. There
was no heat, no place to lie down, and a handful
of port-a-potties. Protesters were held in these
disgraceful conditions for up to 48 hours before
being transported to court facilities-long enough
to exhaust them and keep them off the streets until
after George Bush was re-nominated. Many left
with skin rashes and respiratory problems, and
some developed more serious medical conditions.

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No word as of yet on whether SuperPier tenant Opening

Ceremony will incorporate the Guantanamo-on-the-Hudson
aesthetic into their store's interior design.

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An industrial bakery and a Port Authority warehouse transformed into internet exchanges is perhaps not a surprise--new
infrastructures have a tendency to inherit the homes of past infrastructures, especially in places like Manhattan. The presence
of luxury retail in former industrial spaces is also a familiar
narrative; spaces for other people's leisure love to evoke nostalgia for other people's labor. So it is perhaps not that surprising that law enforcement would situate itself somewhere in the
space between infrastructure and indulgence--as it increasingly
exists to protect and contain both within legible boundaries. Still,
it's jarring to see these vectors of power collapsed onto the same
plane, to see makeshift jails become upscale malls, to see fragments of infrastructure and fragments of history converge but
never quite cohere.
Perhaps it is nave to marvel at corridors like this, where the
parallel presence of industries and ideologies suggest a world of
impossibly casual cruelty. But there is no conspiracy here, merely architectural conveniences and zoning incentives. There are
no devious plots traveling between 111 Eighth Avenue and 85
Tenth Avenue, just overlapping fiber lines and timelines, which
you can see if you know where to look.

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Non-Routine Techniques and Procedures

In early 2014, I filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)
request asking for the locations of every Argus camera owned by
the New York City Police Department (NYPD). It remains unclear
to me whether Argus refers to a make and model of camera or a
camera initiative, but it was used enough in reports about new
camera installations that I figured it would be useful to include
in an FOIL.
I'm not that interested in knowing the locations of cameras
because they're cameras--most of New York City's cameras
are under NYPD jurisdiction. But the networked nature of
NYPD cameras is pretty interesting--each NYPD camera has a
2.4GHz wireless bridge (manufactured by Proxim Wireless)
that, presumably, sends and receives signals to other cameras.
While the details of how NYPD cameras communicate with each
other and back to the Domain Awareness System's servers are
fairly opaque, broad strokes about who is implementing these
networks and some of their workings can be pieced together
from sources like the LinkedIn profiles of IBM engineers, NYPD
slide decks that inadvertently find their way online, and press
releases from companies like EIA Network Technologies and
SecureWatch24.
My initial FOIL request was rejected on the grounds that
disclosing the locations of cameras would reveal non-routine
techniques and procedures. In addition, access must be denied
on the basis of Public Officers Law section (87)(2)(e)(iv) as
such records/information would endanger the life or safety of
witnesses.

bit.ly/1zO49t3

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I appealed, requesting location records only for cameras that

were clearly labeled with the words NYPD on them, like this
one:

This appeal was also rejected, because

"...disclosure of the requested records could endanger the life or safety of any person...disclosure
would reveal non-routing criminal investigative
techniques or procedures....[disclosure] of a list of
the locations of all Argus cameras would enable
the planning of criminal activity so as to reduce the
possibility of being caught on video."
Essentially, knowing the locations of all surveillance cameras,
which are supposed to deter crime, enables the committing of
crimes.

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HARRIET TUBMAN-SARAH CONNOR BRIGADE

DISARMAMENT ACTION
H sent me a press release from
1992. It's about activists who
destroyed NAVSTAR satellites in an
act of nonviolent civil disobedience
against the militarization of space
through GPS.

Before dawn on May 10,

1992, Keith Kjoller, a peace
activist, graphic artist
and cinema worker from
Santa Cruz, CA; and Peter
Lumsdaine, a father, peace
worker, writer from Santa
Cruz, entered a secure
area of the Space Systems
complex at Rockwell
International in Seal Beach,
CA, wearing Rockwell shirts
and workclothes. They
entered Building 86 where
they used wood-splitting axes to break open
steel-mesh reinforced windows and a door of
two dust-free clean rooms containing nine
NAVSTAR global positioning satellites, which were
being readied for delivery to the U.S. Air Force.

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H. wants me to take my research into data-center-geographyas-power-geography to its (or more accurately, his) natural
conclusion: actual shutdowns of physical network infrastructure
as civil disobedience. Actual destruction of towers and fiber
lines, ploughshares-style. He may or may not be joking.

Keith and Peter named their disarmament effort

"The Harriet-Tubman Sarah Connor Brigade,"
honoring the historical conductor of the
"underground railroad" and the fictional nuclear
resistance fighter of the popular movie Terminator
2: Judgement Day. In their action they sought to
commit maximum damage, thereby challenging
plowshares and the wider disarmament movement
to go beyond symbolic witness in addressing the
war machines key technologies.
He's right that we don't really do things like this anymore. The
Harriet Tubman-Sarah Connor Brigade wasn't really an act of
Luddism, insofar as it was not a gesture in defense of labor but
against statecraft, against militarization of space itself.
When I tell people about my interests in observing critical
infrastructure, they often ask me about terrorism implications.
They assume that most people think like H. The truth is, while
it wouldn't be all that difficult for a small group of people to
seriously disrupt network operations (and I'm far from the
first person to observe this), to achieve anything at the scale
of an actual global network shutdown would require so much
coordination and so many bodies that one would basically
have to already be a nation-state. At that scale, you're basically
engaging in an act of mutually assured destruction.

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Federal judges overturned a magistrate's finding

that the two activists posed a danger to the
community requiring their preventive detention
without bail. Supporters say NAVSTAR and other
weapons of mass destruction, not nonviolent
disarmament, endanger our community.
Nonviolent civil disobedience has seen a remarkable resurgence
in the U.S. in the last few years, but I can't recall a recent time
where a protest against regimes propped up by or dependent
on technology went after the hardware itself. There are die-ins
outside drone testing sites sometimes, and there's virtual sit-ins
and website defacements by Anons, but actually smashing up a
server rack or throwing smartphones onto a pyre is both endearingly quaint and painfully ineffective. No matter how much we
may rebel against Google or Amazon's labor practices or role in
transforming cities, late capitalism leaves us few choices (...she
typed in the Google Doc).

An old Usenet email thread from the time of the

Brigade's trial is mostly filled with disdain for the
gesture--for attacking the technology and not the
politics, for failing to comprehend all the good that
can be done with GPS, and for being about ten
years too late.
And what is the peaceful use of GPS? Are you just a little too
caught up in your self righteousness to understand that almost
everything in this world is dual-use? Will you stop flying on 747's
if I told you that most of the US airlines' B747's can be converted to cargo usage in 6 hours, for military usage? Will you stop
traveling the interstates if I told you the real name is the National
Defense Highway System?

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It worries me how much the old Usenet thread reminds me of

conversations I've been hearing about drones for the last few
years.

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This is not entirely to say that I think Kjoller and Lumsdaine's

actions were a good idea. I am not sure what to make of two
men appropriating the names of a science fiction heroine and
the organizer of the Underground Railroad. I am not sure what
to think about H., who is often brilliant but not necessarily the
best influence. (White men who make art about surveillance
rarely are.) I am not sure that the technologies I long considered
the master's tools are even within the master's control or
comprehension anymore.
Listen: I live in a world where people carry black mirrored
amulets with them at all times. These amulets are constantly
searching for connection with complex machinery orbiting
the goddamn planet. These are machines that have origins in
making mutually assured destruction more efficient, machines
that have assisted in the reinvention of logistics, of finance, of
our relationship to space, of our comprehension of time itself.
Our lives are increasingly governed by networks below our feet
and beyond our atmosphere. While these networks effects are
more and more visible and visceral, their actual infrastructure
fades further and further out of sight, as does any mechanism for
accountability when they are used for their original monstrous
purposes.
There are no easy answers for living with integrity and a clear
conscience when the phrase give me convenience or give me
death feels more and more like a false choice. This is where I
think H. is coming from, and while I have no plans to revive the
Harriet Tubman-Sarah Connor Brigade for the age of big data, I
wont be surprised if others do. An axe in a server room (perhaps
a far more literal approach to hacking) is not an instrument for
accountability so much as catharsis. Every smashed window,
broken server and blockaded highway becomes an eruption
against helplessness, gestures of release more than effiacy. The
cathartic ritual, then, becomes a reasonable response to living in
a world governed by former and current killing machines.

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D A T A
C E N T
E R T
I P S

INGRID BURRINGTON

Tips for The Aspiring Data Center Tourist

It probably goes without saying that there are different kinds of
data centers and different kinds of spaces dedicated to network
infrastructure. The locations of internet exchanges is publicly
available information (Telegeography publishes a directory of
them at internetexchangemap.com). Often, finding out where an
IX is will help you find colocation centers and some data centers. A lot of these companies also just put their locations online
already (or disclosed in real estate company press releases or
websites like Data Center Knowledge ("websites like" may be an
unfair characterization because there really isn't any website
quite like Data Center Knowledge, it is totally amazing)).
If you're in search of the data centers of huge, bespoke data centers like Google and Facebook, you're going to probably have to
do a bit more homework to get precise locations. Luckily, a lot of
people have done that homework before you and sometimes put
it online, but if you really want to start from scratch (or if you're
actually trying to figure out what places might become data center landscapes), here are some suggestions.

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Satellite maps.
Once you've found a relevant region, take a look of it on Google
Satellite view. Generally you're lookong for buildings with really
big tanks of water, backup generators attached to their buildings,
or lots of fans on the roof. Street View can also be a useful way to
confirm--the less windows a building has, the more likely it was
built for machines and not for humans
Dead or dying industries.
Infrastructure inherits infrastructure. Data centers need space
and tubes, which places like old paper and textile mills or
warehouses tend to have. Depending on your data center needs,
retrofitting old spaces is a better choice than creating something
entirely new from the ground up. Additionally, places where the
economy's already collapsed are pretty desperate for any new
businesses and will probably be willing to accommodate a data
center's needs.
Tax deals.
This is perhaps a more useful thing to look for if you want to
know if the place you live is about to become a hub for data
centers. A lot of counties and states create generous tax deals
on electricity and water for businesses, to entice companies to
build data centers there. New zoning or tax proposals are useful
indicators.
If you just want to see a data center in person, this is all probably
enough. If you want to get in to a data center, it helps to be a
white man with a book deal or institutional funding who can
easily reach out to companies like Equinix or Google. Good luck
with that.

131

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Data Center Observatory, Carnegie Mellon University.

Photo Jonathan Minard. Used with permission.

Data Center Observatory, Carnegie Mellon University

Photo Jonathan Minard. Used with permission.

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SCS Network, Carnegie Mellon University

Photo Jonathan Minard. Used with permission.

SCS Network, Carnegie Mellon University

Photo Jonathan Minard. Used with permission.

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R
P

ADDIE WAGENKNECHT
JEN LOWE
MARAL POURKAZEMI
HARLO HOLMES

R
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O
T

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L A B

The week Deep Lab convened to create this book, the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence released a redacted version
of its Study of the Central Intelligence Agencys Detention and
Interrogation Program, known colloquially in the media as The
1.usa.gov/1yLNJxj

Torture Report. It is a traumatic document, controversial from

its inception to its release. Given the horrors within this excerpted report, is painful to imagine what lies behind the monolithic
black redactions.
In this Project, we replaced bulletin boards, typically covered
with announcements of club meetings and career fairs, with the
text of the Torture Report. It was an attempt to bring the tensions
inherent in the document and our presence in CMU to the surface.
No response to the Torture Report will ever be complete or coherent, but we believe that facing the document--its contents, its
redactions, and the policies and culture that created both--is not
a personal choice but an ethical imperative. They are ephemeral
and unfinished gestures, representing an ongoing commitment
to facing and challenging the paradigms that made such a document possible.
One of the more horrifying aspects of the Torture Report is that
it is merely a report--it renders unspeakable cruelty into at times
clinical, at times bureaucratic language. By breaking apart the
language of the document, counting the use of specific words
(and the removal of others) we sought to identify and face all
that the Torture Report left unsaid.

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U
N
V E I L
L A N C E

HARLO HOLMES

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In a post-Wikileaks,
post-Snowden,
post-Documentcloud,
post-doxxing world; it can
be easy to take the work
done by journalists, data
scientists, and
whistleblowers for
granted.
I wanted to explore that
work, and in doing so,
built an engine, called
Unveillance, that
automates a lot of complex
document-management
tasks.

Unveillance:

natural language processing exercises on the CIA Torture Report

The freshlydeclassified CIA
Torture Report
was the perfect
document to
experiment on.
My engine split up
the document into
smaller data
objects that could
then be analyzed
in detail.

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Once I could locate a (semi-) properly OCRd

version of the document, my engine took about
3 minutes to unpack topics, keyworks, people,
organizations, and locations.

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3 2 4 /
1 0 3 3
A SELECTION OF OBJECTS FROM
THE PENTAGON'S 1033 PROGRAM

INGRID BURRINGTON

1 5 2

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

BAYONET-KNIFE (16)
GRAND SALINE POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

WINTHROP HARBOR POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

KNEE AND ELBOW PAD

SYSTEM (20)
DEWEY BEACH POLICE DEPT, DE, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE
DISPOSAL SUIT (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

WINTHROP HARBOR POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

WASHINGTON CTY SHERIFF OFFICE, OH, 2014

GROUND TROOPS'PARACHUTISTS' HELMET

(8)

NIGHT VISION IMAGE

INTENSIFIER (15)

METALLIC PARTICLE
DETECTOR (1)

SANTA MARIA POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

SIMPSONVILLE POLICE DEPT, KY, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

BAY COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH SHERIFF, LA, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

PLATOON EARLY
WARNING SYSTEM (1)

WASHOE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NV, 2014

PASCO COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

ALLIANCE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

CARGO TRUCK (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

RADIO SET (2)

ARECIBO POLICE DEPT, PR, 2014

CAIRO POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

DIESEL GENERATOR (1)

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

POINT PLEASANT BEACH POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

ALLIANCE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

KY STATE POLICE, KY, 2014

DUST AND MOISTURE

SEAL PROTECTIVE
CAP-PLUG (20)

RADIO SET (3)

ALLIANCE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

GROUND TROOPS'-PARACHUTISTS' HELMET (6)

WHITESBURG POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

INFRAR AIMING LIGHT

(8)

STARLIGHT SCOPE (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

JONES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

PUYALLUP TRIBAL POLICE, WA, 2014

STARLIGHT SCOPE (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

JONES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

PUYALLUP TRIBAL POLICE, WA, 2014

ALLIANCE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

INFRAR AIMING LIGHT

(8)
ALLIANCE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

153

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

CABLE WIRE (1)

DARLINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

LIGHT ARMORED
VEHICLE (1)
DEKALB POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BODY ARMOR VEST (8)

JONES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

WHEELED TRACTORS (1)

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

PASCO COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

GROUND TROOPS'PARACHUTISTS' HELMET

(12)

REFLEX SIGHT (1)

MILLSTADT POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

GROUND TROOPS'-PARACHUTISTS' HELMET (8)

JONES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

JONES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

GUN FORE END STOCK

(16)
SANTA MARIA POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

PICKUP (1)
PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)
PINAL COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AZ, 2014

SMALL ARMS-FRAGMENTATION PROTECTIVE

SUPPLEMENTAL ARMOR
(1)
TEMPE POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

CHARLOTTE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

BAY COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

DARLINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

CARGO-TRANSPORT

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

VEST ARMOR (5)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

NJ STATE POLICE-FIELD OPS SECTION, NJ, 2014

CHICKAMAUGA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

RI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, RI, 2014

AIRPLANE (1)
BLACK RIVER TECH COLLEGE LE ACAD, AR, 2014

1 5 4

FRAGMENTATION
PROTECTIVE BODY
ARMOR (1)

MINE DETECTING SET (1)

MINE DETECTING SET (1)

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

2014

MINE DETECTING SET (1)

MINE DETECTING SET (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

OHIO TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, PA, 2014

2014

2014

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

CHURCH HILL POLICE DEPT, TN, 2014

CHURCH HILL POLICE DEPT, TN, 2014

SANTA ROSA COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

BOURBON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, KY, 2014

DARLINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

US DHS ICE NATIONAL ARMORY OPS, PA, 2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

2014

2014

IMAGE INTESNSIFIER (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

TAILBOOM ASSY (1)

ESSEX COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, VA, 2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

CLAYTON COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT, GA,

2014

2014

VAN TRUCK (1)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

EDGEWOOD POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

CLEVELAND METROPARKS RANGER DEPT, OH,

AUTOMATIC CALIBER
.45 PISTOL (1)

2014

BAYONET (6)
DEKALB COUNTY MARSHALS OFFICE, GA, 2014

AUTOMATIC CALIBER
.45 PISTOL (1)
JACKSON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NC, 2014

N IMAGE INTENSIFIER
(1)
ESSEX COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, VA, 2014

JACKSON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NC, 2014

ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT

(1)
HARRIS COUNTY SHERRIF DEPT, TX, 2014

OUTERSHELLL BASE

NIGHT VISION IMAGE

VEST (2)

INTENSIFIER (11)

RAY CITY POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

TAFT POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

155

NIGHT VISION IMAGE

REFLEX SIGHT (1)

INTENSIFIER (11)

WOODFORD COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, KY, 2014

SEARCH AND RESCUE

HELICOPTER (1)
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CA,

ESSEX COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, VA, 2014

2014

MOTOR VEH/TRLR/CYCL
(1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

YATES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NY, 2014

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AR, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

ME DIVISION OF FOREST PROTECTION, ME, 2014

CHARLESTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

GROUND TROOPS'-PAR-

NIGHT VISION IMAGE

INTENSIFIER (5)

KY STATE POLICE, KY, 2014

ACHUTISTS' HELMET (1)

DEKALB COUNTY MARSHALS OFFICE, GA, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)
JOHNSON COUNTY CONSTABLE PCT 4, TX, 2014

KERN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CA, 2014

RIFLE BIPOD (30)

RIFLE BIPOD (20)

RIFLE BIPOD (6)

AVONDALE POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

CHINO VALLEY POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

SURPRISE POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

RIFLE BIPOD (15)

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (4)

CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE
(11)

DILLON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

DEKALB COUNTY MARSHALS OFFICE, GA, 2014

DEMIL REQ DIGITAL ADP

CPU (10)

GROUND TROOPS'
HELMET (5)

THATCHER POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

WRECKER TRUCK (1)

WILLIAMS POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

DILLON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

SHAKER HEIGHTS POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

BAYONET-KNIFE (2)

NIGHT VISION SIGHT (1)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

SHAKER HEIGHTS POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

MCDUFFIE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

(1)
BENT COUNTY SHERIFF, CO, 2014

AIRCRAF POWER UNIT

(1)
TULARE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CA, 2014

INFRARED

ARMORED TRUCK (1)

TRANSMITTER (21)

CAMPBELL POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

PLACER COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CA, 2014

1 5 6

ARMORED TRUCK (1)

ARMORED TRUCK (1)

FIBERGLASS BOAT (1)

GLENDALE POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

MASON CITY POLICE DEPT, IA, 2014

CHEROKEE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, CO, 2014

NIGHT VISION IMAGE

INTENSIFIER (20)

MINE RESISTANT
VEHICLE (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

TAFT POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

CODINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE, SD, 2014

FAIRVIEW POLICE DEPT, OK, 2014

RIFLE ACCESSORIES
POUCH (1)

COLD WEATHER SHIRT

(10)

MEN'S SOCKS (100)

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

OBSERVATION

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

TENT LINE (100)

HELICOPTER (1)
SAINT LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, FL, 2014

CARGO TRUCK (1)

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

TRAILER MOUNTED
TENT UTILITIES
SUPPORT UNIT (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FIBROUS ROPE (2)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

ETOWAH COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AL, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

157

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

LA VILLA POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

LA VILLA POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

MELBOURNE POLICE DEPT, FL, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

LA VILLA POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

SAINT PAUL POLICE DEPT, MN, 2014

SAINT PAUL POLICE DEPT, MN, 2014

SAINT PAUL POLICE DEPT, MN, 2014

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

SAINT PAUL POLICE DEPT, MN, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

MAN'S SHIRT (5)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

TUSCOLA COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, MI, 2014

PULASKI COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, KY, 2014

HEADSET-MICROPHONE
(4)

LA VILLA POLICE DEPT, TX, 2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

WEST WENDOVER POLICE DEPT, NV, 2014

TN 24TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT DTF, TN, 2014

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)
PINAL COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AZ, 2014

UTILITY TRUCK (1)

VAN (1)

LAPTOP COMPUTER (1)

NORTHPORT POLICE DEPT, AL, 2014

MOUNT VERNON POLICE DEPT, NY, 2014

CAMPBELL POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

1 5 8

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CENTRIFUGAL PUMP
UNIT (2)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

MOUNT VERNON POLICE DEPT, NY, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

BRUNSWICK POLICE DEPT, ME, 2014

BRUNSWICK POLICE DEPT, ME, 2014

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

BRUNSWICK POLICE DEPT, ME, 2014

SOMERSET COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, ME, 2014

SOMERSET COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, ME, 2014

RUGGED LAPTOP
COMPUTER (1)

GRENADE LAUNCHER (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

DESCHUTES CTY SHERIFF, OR, 2014

SOMERSET COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, ME, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

ELECTRIC FLOODLIGHT
SET (1)

L-UNIT WORKSTATION
(1)

HEADSET-MICROPHONE
(5)

AUTAUGA COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AL, 2014

MOUNT VERNON POLICE DEPT, NY, 2014

SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NM, 2014

OBSERVATION

OBSERVATION

HELICOPTER (1)

HELICOPTER (1)

CLARK COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, IN, 2014

PUERTO RICO POLICE DEPT, PR, 2014

RADAR SCATTERING
CAMOUFLAGE NET
SYSTEM (2)
FLORENCE POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FORKLIFT (1)

FLYER'S HELMET (10)

ARMORED TRUCK (1)

CRAWFORD TOWN POLICE DEPT, NY, 2014

SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NM, 2014

WEST SACRAMENTO POLICE DEPT, CA, 2014

TRAILER MOUNTED
TENT UTILITIES
SUPPORT UNIT (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FIBROUS ROPE (2)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

ETOWAH COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AL, 2014

VILLA RICA POLICE DEPT, GA, 2014

159

OBSERVATION
HELICOPTER (1)

BALANCE ARM KIT (2)

SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NM, 2014

STRATFORD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

AIRCRAFT ENGINE
STAND (1)
SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NM, 2014

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

4 WHEEL ALL TERRAIN

VEHICLE (1)

NIGHT VISION VIEWING

SET (19)

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

CA DEPT OF FISH AND GAME HQ, CA, 2014

4 WHEEL ALL TERRAIN

VEHICLE (1)

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

NIGHT VISION VIEWER

(1)

FLOODLIGHT ASSEMBLY
(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

LEDYARD POLICE DEPT, CT, 2014

BOURBON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, KY, 2014

CRAIG CTY SHERIFF DEPT, OK, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CRAIG CTY SHERIFF DEPT, OK, 2014

CRAIG CTY SHERIFF DEPT, OK, 2014

CRAIG CTY SHERIFF DEPT, OK, 2014

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

WRIGHT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, MN, 2014

WRIGHT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, MN, 2014

WRIGHT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, MN, 2014

CARGO TRUCK (2)

7.62 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

LIGHT ARMORED

CLAIBORNE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, TN, 2014

WRIGHT COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, MN, 2014

AUTOMATIC CALIBER .45

PISTOL (1)
CHASKA POLICE DEPT, MN, 2014

VEHICLE (1)
NE STATE PATROL, NE, 2014

DIGITAL COMPUTER

LIGHT ARMORED

SYSTEM (3)

VEHICLE (1)

HUBBARD POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

NE STATE PATROL, NE, 2014

1 6 0

NIGHT VISION SCOPE (1)

SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

PORTTABLE INFANTRY
TARGET SYS (5)

NIGHT VISION SCOPE (1)

SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

NORWALK POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

LIGHT ARMORED
VEHICLE (1)

LASER MARKMANSHIP
TRAINING (1)

NE STATE PATROL, NE, 2014

LANCASTER POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

GROUND TROOPS'
HELMET (6)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

PULASKI COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, GA, 2014

TERRE HAUTE POLICE DEPARTMENT, IN, 2014

DIGITAL ADP CPU (1)

NIGHT VISION SCOPE (1)

CIRCLEVILLE POLICE DEPT, OH, 2014

SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

NIGHT VISION SCOPE (1)

SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

NIGHT VISION SCOPE (1)

SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

COLD WEATHER SHIRT

(8)
FORT LEE POLICE DEPT, NJ, 2014

ROTARY WING BLADE (1)

ROTARY WING BLADE (1)

WASHOE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NV, 2014

WASHOE COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, NV, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)
AIKEN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, SC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

TRAILER MOUNTED
TENT UTILITIES
SUPPORT UNIT (1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPT, AZ, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

ETOWAH COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, AL, 2014

161

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

1 6 2

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

BENNETTSVILLE POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

CAIRO POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CAIRO POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CAIRO POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CAIRO POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

163

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

RIFLE BARREL (1)

CARTERVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CAYCE PUBLIC SAFETY, SC, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

CHARLESTON POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CARTRIDGE RECEIVER
(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

CHESTER TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT, PA, 2014

CLINTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPT, IL, 2014

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

COBDEN POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

BARTONVILLE POLICE DEPT, IL, 2014

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

5.56 MILLIMETER RIFLE

(1)

COLUMBIA POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

COLUMBIA POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

COLUMBIA POLICE DEPT, SC, 2014

CENTRALIA POLICE DEPT, WA, 2014

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C EE N
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165

SO
O
S
A
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ADDIE WAGENKNECHT
JEN LOWE
MARAL POURKAZEMI

R
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The Nashravaran Journalistic Institute is an Iranian organization

which monitors postal correspondence entering the country.
Before a resident of Iran can read magazines sent to them, the
institute goes through every single page looking for what they
consider inappropriate or offensive imagery. White tape, black
marker or brushed paint are carefullyalmost surgicallyapplied
to cover the offending content. Those are almost exclusively
womens bodies, exposed skin, images of kissing couples, and
mens genitals (though never their topless bodies). In rare cases
the Institute also censors text that could be seen as offensive to
the country.
(When Western magazines are sold over the counter, shop
owners sometimes censor the magazine content too.)
What is so radically different from Western models of subversive
censorship is that Iranian censorship is more overt and openly
performed.
We wanted to take the aesthetic of this 2D censorship and
transform its iconic elements and forms into objects that could
be worn to make the censors job slightly easier.

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167

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169

bit.ly/1w4F24e

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173

F O X Y
D O X X
I
N
G

HARLO HOLMES

i wrote something on
tumblr that some
people could not even.

now this is a story

all about how
and they blew up...

...my timeline

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175

mrw this happens...

wait, actually,
this is getting
out of hand.
my inbox is
blowing up!

now theres a
second dude
jumping into
it. that guy
looks like a
straight-up
axe murderer.
should i be
concerned?

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It was actually relentless. I never dreamed how one stupid thing I

said on Tumblr would cause so much vitriol. My phone kept buzzing,
like every other minute. It grew hot in my hands. I got really scared.

~r
to ing
ne
~

I WAS CYBER-BULLIED

WITHIN AN INCH OF MY LIFE LAST NIGHT

I MAKE DOLLS OUT OF HUMAN HAIR

And as day turned into night, I wondered if

this shit would bleed into my rl.

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Theres precedent for this, actually.

Danielle Keats Citron cites US legislation that maintains that such online
abuse is not only illegal, but can be
brought to trial if the conditions are
right.

One of the biggest problem is, its hard to

gather the evidence youd need to build a
case. Recently, a developer for the Tor
Project took matters into her own hands;
analyzing her twitter timeline to find
her bully. She did a lot of legwork.
How can we automate that work for
those of us without the requisite skills?

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I propose a system
whereby anyone
can forward a
mention email to a
little bot on the
internet that will
perform this
research on their
behalf.

the user can put this aggression in the background, and go about the
rest of their day. you know, get out of the house; walk the dog; have
him poo on some bowler hats you see on the sidewalk. just normal
stuff.

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Dont worry,
its just a
website.

L A B

179

As you return to
the realities of the
physical world, the
bot remains in
cyber space
chronicling the
linear timeline of
the attack; who
tweeted it, who
retweeted it, what
time these things
happened, how
these people are
connected, and
where else on the
internet people are
saying similar
things. After a
period of time,
youd receive a
report
documenting this
particular fray.

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I had a very talented designer friend draw me

a sketch, and I set to work on our feature set.

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S E C
U R E
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RUNA A. SANDVIK

About SecureDrop
The avalanche of disclosures over the recent years has only
intensified the battle between media organizations and the
government, making it more difficult - and more risky - to share
information. SecureDrop is an open-source platform that aims
to help journalists and sources communicate securely using a
number of privacy enhancing tools, including Tor, Tails and GPG.
SecureDrop was originally designed and developed by the late
Aaron Swartz and Kevin Poulsen under the name DeadDrop,
but is now managed by Freedom of the Press Foundation. The
organization helps journalists install and use the system, and
also trains them in security best practices. More than a dozen
news organizations have set up SecureDrop since May 2013, and
more deployments will be announced in early 2015.

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183

About this project

Imagine that you have information you wish to share with a
news organization. How would you go about doing so securely?
If you attempt to research this topic without first thinking about
what kind of traces you will leave behind and how to best mitigate this, you may just be making things more difficult for yourself. Remember that encryption and digital security tools will
only get you so far.
A key part of using SecureDrop is using the Tor Browser and visiting the right website. If you don't know what the right website
is, you can take a look at the official list of SecureDrop instances

bit.ly/1zE9lzM

that Freedom of the Press Foundation maintains. Ideally, you will

be at a random coffee shop with free wifi and using a new laptop
with the Tails operating system on a USB stick while doing so.
My Dumb Store app provides an alternative way to learn about

bit.ly/1BC1HrU

official SecureDrop instances. By texting 'sd' to +1 646-666-3536,

you will receive random SecureDrop addresses that you can
visit using the Tor Browser.. One can argue that requesting this
information indicates an intent to leak information more than,
say, simply browsing the Freedom of the Press website. I do not
disagree.
If Twilio incorporated the TextSecure protocol, we would at least
be one step closer to providing this information in encrypted
form to a tiny portion of our user base.

T H I
I S M
C H
P T E

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A
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MADDY VARNER

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185

Welcome to MY chapter!!! i feel like my life is

defined by the music incessantly on repeat so im
gonna make u a mixtape..........

NO FLEX ZONE ~ rae sremmurd - dj assault - remix

y2u.be/p2cQSPRTdhg

SMOKE DRINK BREAKUP (MURLO REFIX) ~ mila j

y2u.be/HdjaiXGUam8

PAID & PUBLISHED ~ cakes da killa

y2u.be/YltarEWBvcA

U CAN SELL ANYTHING ~ das racist

y2u.be/CFFPhXBa3P4

MY NEIGHBOR YEEZUS [ASTRO KID] ~ piss spears & friends

y2u.be/LxOs6IT8bVE

BLANK SPACE - taylor swift

y2u.be/e-ORhEE9VVg

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187

R I
C
L L
T
T E
LORRIE CRANOR
REBECCA BALEBAKO
DARYA KURILOVA
MANYA SLEEPER

V
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What is privacy? What does privacy mean to you?

Privacy is a complex concept that can mean different things, to
different people, at different times. Culture, environment, and
life experience may shape views on privacy. Even privacy experts struggle to find a single definition of privacy.
Robert C. Post,

Law professor Robert C. Post wrote, Privacy is a value so com-

Three Concepts of

plex, so entangled in competing and contradictory dimensions,

Privacy, 89 Geo. L.J.

so engorged with various and distinct meanings, that I sometimes despair whether it can be usefully addressed at all.

2087 (2001).

Privacy scholars have written countless articles defining and

conceptualizing privacy. Corporations also provide their views
through privacy policies that have become nearly ubiquitous on
company websites.
We want to know what everyday people think about when they
think about privacy. What are they asking for when they ask for
privacy? What do they believe has been taken away when they
complain that their privacy is being invaded? What is it that they
value about privacy?
We use drawings to explore privacy concepts. This allows us to
explore insights from children and adults and provides images
that convey a wide array of privacy concepts. We visited three
Pittsburgh-area schools and asked about 75 students in kindergarten, third grade, sixth grade, and high school to draw pictures
of privacy. In each class, we began by asking students to tell their
classmates what they think about when they think about privacy. Students spent 5-10 minutes expressing their thoughts about
privacy. They then used papers and markers to draw pictures
illustrating their thoughts about privacy and signed the pictures
with their first names and ages.
mturk.com

To collect drawings from adults, we asked Amazon Mechanical

Turk (MTurk) workers to draw a picture of what they think about
when they think about privacy. We paid each worker $1

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to upload their drawing and provide us with a short description,

their first name or pseudonym, and their age. We restricted our
request to U.S. Turk workers and collected 109 drawings in less
than a day.
We printed out all the MTurk worker drawings and added them
to our collection of student drawings. We then spread them all
out on the floor and sorted them into thematic groups, tagged
with post-it notes.
A range of themes emerged, which we used to arrange the
drawings in this chapter. We describe some of these themes and
the tags we created next.
Being alone and creating private spaces
[alone, bedroom, under a blanket, sleeping, away from kids, keeping siblings out, emailing and texting alone, intimacy]
The idea of being alone is one of the most basic concepts of
privacy, and the one that dominated the conversation among
our youngest contributors. Privacy can involve the ability to be
alone or create a private space. For many people, of all ages, this
private space is their bedroom, with the door shut, or curled up
in a blanket. For some children this involved being able to sleep
alone, privately, in their beds. Many pictures depicteda quiet,
private space away from disturbances from family. Children
drew pictures of places where they went to escape from siblings,
while harried mothers drew pictures of real or imagined spaces
where they could escape from the demands of the family.
Physical privacy
[changing clothes, bathrooms, bathing]
Multiple drawings illustrated other forms of physical privacy.
Children and adults drew pictures of activities during which they
wouldnt want someone physically present or watching, such as
changing their clothes or bathing. Many pictures also depicted
bathrooms, which are strongly associated with privacy. Some

189

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drawings by children illustrated the privacy invasion that occurs

when a second person enters a bathroom.
Barriers
[personal bubbles, doors, fences and walls]
We often use physical barriers to protect our privacy and guard
against physical intrusions or being watched. Many people drew
physical barriers, such as doors, walls, and fences. In addition,
some people drew metaphorical personal bubbles to protect their
privacy while keeping the rest of the world away.
Nature
[in nature]
For some people, the only way to achieve privacy is to get away
from other people, by going for a walk or sitting by themselves in
a natural area. Some of our most beautiful drawings came from
older contributors who illustrated outdoor solitude.
Privacy of thoughts and ideas
[protecting your thoughts, preventing cheating]
Thoughts and ideas are also often considered personal. Some
drawings focussed on keeping thoughts private inside ones head.
Others illustrated efforts to protect their written thoughts, for example, by preventing others from cheating off their test papers.
Online privacy
[computer security, passwords, locks, eyes and cameras, spam,
employment risks, social media]
Many privacy concerns relate to the online world. People often
want to keep their online data secure, and private, or lock it
away from others. Social media presents additional risks. People
realize that, as they express themselves through social media,
they can also risk negative consequences. Many drawings by
teenagers focussed on online privacy and social media. Some
illustrated approaches to protecting ones privacy online while
others depicted privacy invasions, including sharing of nude
selfies.

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191

Surveillance
[government surveillance, ads]
Government surveillance and the use of online data for advertising is also a common concern. People are concerned about their
online data being captured by companies and government agencies and wish they had more control. While our youngest contributors did not depict surveillance, this was a common theme
for teenagers and adults.
Complexity and illusion
[illusion, collage]
Privacy is complicated. Some pictures reflect this complexity,
including a wide range of concepts. Others express that privacy
is an illusion, something we cant truly have.
To add to our collection of drawings from children and adults,
we read privacy policies of the 10 most visited US websites (as
of December 2014) and chose the most representative and interesting quotes. We also selected quotes about privacy from celebrities and from the scholarly literature on privacy. These quotes
are interspersed with related drawings in this chapter.
The material we collected is illustrative
of American views on privacy at the
end of 2014. We see a range of simple
and complex concepts. Our contributors were influenced by recent events,
including Edward Snowdens revelations about the NSA, the theft of nude
celebrity selfies from their cell phones,
and Kim Kardashian posing nude for
the cover of Paper magazine.
We created a companion website at http://bit.ly/privacy-illu
that displays all the drawings we collected with accompanying
descriptions. We invite you to contribute your own drawing of
privacy to extend our collection.

bit.ly/1Gl5w4z

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The right to be let alone

Samuel D. Warren
& Louis D. Brandeis
The Right to Privacy
December, 1890

We do not knowingly collect

Privacy is the right to be by yourself.
Privacy is isolation.
Kevin 28

personal information from

children under 13.
Twitter privacy policy

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193

In my room

When I think of privacy, this is exactly what I picture.

Being safe in my room, with 3 items that immediately come to
mind. Curtains on my windows, a lock on my door, and my computer protected by a firewall.
Mori 26

As adults, by and large, we think of the home as a very private

space ... for young people it's not a private space. They have no
control over who comes in and out of their room, or who comes
in and out of their house. As a result, the online world feels more
private because it feels like it has more control.
danah boyd

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Intimacy

Kara 43

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195

Under cover

My drawing shows physical and emotional privacy.

The blanket symbolizes a barrier to openness.
Kelly 36

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Changing clothes

It is a women changing clothes.

She is behind a privacy screen so
no one can see her changing.
Alessa 32

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197

Sibilings

One crying and spying young

sister for sale!
Shel Silverstein

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Showering

Privacy means I can do things and not face public ridicule or judgment. Like taking a shower, who wants to have an audience while
taking a shower?
Chris 37

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199

Bathroom

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Escape

This is me enjoying my privacy. This is the only time during the

day, where I am truly alone and nothing
bothers me. No man, no children, no dogs.
Cindy 54

I have four children, two of which I share a bedroom with. Privacy, to me, is to have a space to yourself that no one is allowed in to
keep whatever it is you want to keep for yourself.
Karin 26

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201

Doors

This is my bedroom door. Its almost 120 years old and

it doesnt close, no matter how many times I try to push
it shut.
Jennifer 23

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Walls and fences

In my drawing, I have built a fence to guard my privacy

against the thieves that want to steal my information.
Steve 48

I believe a fence is a sign of privacy. This picture shows enough of

my house to show that I dont mind some people to see me, but I
prefer a barrier when it comes to some things.
Shanna 32

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203

Personal bubble

Imperturbable!
JK Rowling

Inside a box, hidden by darkness is a person wanting privacy from

the chaos outside. Privacy is attained by keeping out the colorful,
crazy disorder of the outside world, inside of the simple dark box.
June 29

Privacy for me is like a place with a one-sided mirror. I can see outside but no one can see in unless
I open the door. Also an extra wall on the outside
just in case.
Kim 21

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Control

Privacy is the claim of individuals,

groups or institutions to determine
for themselves when, how, and
to what extent information about
them is communicated to others.
Alan Westin, Privacy and
Freedom, 1967
It is the difference between what the average person wants other
people to see, and what they dont want other people to see. Privacy and personal protection separates those two things.
CJ 20

Privacy is a persons right to select which parties of or all of his personal information or
attributes that can be shared with others.
Privacy Means Respect 29

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...your privacy is genuinely

important to us.
Reddit

Yahoo takes your privacy seriously.

Your privacy matters to Google...

Of course, for information

others share about you, they
control how it is shared.
Facebook privacy policy

Please do not contribute any information that you

are uncomfortable making permanently public,
like revealing your real name or location in your
contributions.
Wikipedia privacy policy

Our goal is to be clear about what information we collect, so that you can
make meaningful choices about how
it is used.
Google privacy policy

205

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A man and his dog companion take a walk to get away from everyone and have time alone for thinking and
reflecting. Sometimes the only way to have privacy is
to just get up and leave.
Paula 62
Privacy means nature, no fences, no boundaries. Man made
constraints like houses, businesses, and resorts dont offer privacy
in my mind. Privacy needs freedom and elements beyond our
control. A curtain of rain offers more privacy than a solid door.
Aneta 45

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207

I never found a companion that

was so companionable as solitude.
Henry David Thoreau

Being able to enjoy the nature in total silence. Being able to inhale
fresh air. To spend the night outside alone, enjoying the moon and
the stars. To just be yourself without anyone noticing.
Pshyche 31

I would like to live in a one-story house out in the rural land

where I have enough space to plant all my crops and have a fresh
water lake.
Rachel 33

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Thoughts

I drew a picture of a book that represents knowledge enclosed in

a shell which is a light bulb. This is a metaphor for the privacy of
the thoughts in my head, although they radiate out you cannot get
into it while its still working.
Kay 25

Privacy means that the thoughts in my brain are locked away.

What I know does not have to go into the world, which I put an X
over.
Thomas 19

We believe that you shouldnt have

to provide personal information to
participate in the free knowledge
movement.
Wikipedia privacy policy

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209

Privacy is when I should be able to hide my own things and not

have to cover my hands over my test answers, etc
to be able to have something private.
Jay 18

I drew two kids taking a test. One is trying to cheat and look at the
other kids paper.
Age 8

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Alone online

The person in the box represents someone alone doing something

online. The lines that go out from the box represent that everything we do is connected to so many different things and places. It
is the myth that we have privacy when we are alone online.
Maria 35

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Historically, privacy was almost implicit,

because it was hard to find and gather
information. But in the digital world,
whether it's digital cameras or satellites
or just what you click on, we need to
have more explicit rules - not just for
governments but for private companies.
Bill Gates

211

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Cyber security

We make good faith efforts to

store data securely, but make no
guarantees.
Craigslist privacy policy

Privacy on the internet: These days there is so much talk about

what is safe and what isnt safe, I thought that this was the best
representation of privacy at this moment.
Josh 25

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213

Privacy means having the ability to not be seen online, to not be

tracked or have all of your information remembered. Privacy is
also important with security because you want to be safe online
when making online purchases, or giving personal information
away. I think the incognito mode on a browser helps with privacy
because your history or cookies arent tracked.
George 18

Two men are talking at a nearby diner. Theyre having a conversation in the open, however their language is being encrypted with
binary code so other people cant tell what they are speaking.
Shinobu 24

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Passwords

This is what privacy means to me. It is a

signon portal with the password hidden
from prying eyes.
Amber 23

Security Blanket, Lorrie Faith Cranor

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215

Locks

When I think of privacy today, my thoughts inevitably turn to internet privacy. Privacy on the internet is important to me because
it can affect my life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Jay 42

The image in my opinion is to reflect privacy from others accessing my device.

Mitch 28

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Eyes and cameras

A man watched by cameras. He has no privacy.

Spartacus 33

To me privacy means being able to get away from unwanted eyes.

My drawing was quite literally a person escaping the unwanted
attention from eyes around him by enclosing himself in his bubble. NotAnArtist 19

This drawing is about always being watched, hence the eye and
people in power symbols. The red cross out sign is obviously to
cross out all those things, thereby showing what privacy means.
Nate 31

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217

Surveillance

These days when people talk about privacy, they are

referring to the breaches on internet security and
censorship. My drawing deals with my antipathy
towards this topic.

I cant in good conscience allow the

Jinny 21

U.S. government to destroy privacy,

internet freedom and basic liberties
for people around the world with
this massive surveillance machine
theyre secretly building.
Edward Snowden

To me, privacy means not being spied on by my government. The

NSA is violating the constitution by collecting and storing data on
everyone in the US. This needs to stop, we need to riot.
Franklin 28

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Advertising and marketing

By using eBay.com and its related

sites, application, services and
tools, and/or registering for an eBay
account, you expressly consent
to our collection, use, disclosure,
and retention of your personal
information as described in this
Privacy Policy and in our User
Agreement.
eBay privacy policy

The drawing is me in the privacy of my own home, invaded by

advertisers, marketers, and all the other entities that want my
information and identity. I facepalm at the sight of this. So I build
a fence to keep them out, but they try to get me to come back and
give up my information. TOO BAD, buddy!
Christopher 26

Now that so many commercial interests want to know everything

about us, privacy is something we have to actively pursue instead
of assuming that it just IS. We have to build locks because we
know that they will build weapons to batter down our defenses.
Tom 34

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We and our users do not

tolerate spam.
eBay privacy policy

Its a red no entry sign. Behind it is all the messages I see online
every day that I feel invade my privacy and that I wish I could
prevent.
Tiggy 52
A phone declining a spam caller for
privacy reason. People dont like company
or spam to have their private cell phone
number.
Mack 25

Information about our customers is

an important part of our business,
and we are not in the business of
selling it to others.
Amazon privacy policy

219

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Social media

People have really gotten comfortable

not only sharing more information
and different kinds, but more openly
and with more people.
Mark Zuckerberg

My picture shows a computer with someone viewing social media

sites. They cant see any private information due to privacy settings. It also shows an iPhone with a pass code.
Madeline 26

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While you are allowing us to use

the information we receive about
you, you always own all of your
information.
Facebook privacy policy

I cant even describe to anybody what

it feels like to have my naked body
shoot across the world like a news
flash against my will. It just makes
me feel like a piece of meat thats
being passed around for a profit.
Jennifer Lawrence

221

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Employment risks

Privacy means, my personal posts on social media or internet sites

should be off limits to an employer. My posts should have no bearing on m ability to do my job. My posts are personal and private.
MHUT 37

Information ... that others have

copied may also remain visible after
you have closed your account or
deleted the information from your
own profile.
LinkedIn privacy policy

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By default, [the posts and comments

you make on reddit] are not deleted
from our servers ever and will still
be accessible after your account is
deleted.
Reddit privacy policy
Once we receive personal
information from you, we keep
it for the shortest possible time...
Non-personal information may be
retained indefinitely.
Wikipedia privacy policy

223

2 2 4

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We hope that this never comes up,

but we may disclose your personal
information if we believe that it's
reasonably necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm or
death to a person, or to protect our
organization, employees, contractors,
users, or the public.
Wikipedia privacy policy
We collect information to provide
You can browse our sites without

better services to all

telling us who you are or revealing

of our users....

any personal information about

Google privacy policy

yourself. If you register for an

account with us, you give us your

We might receive information about

personal information, and you are

you from other sources and add it to

not anonymous to us.

our account information.

eBay privacy policy

Amazon privacy policy

Our Privacy Policy may change from

If you cannot agree to the terms and

time to time.

conditions set forth below, please do

Google privacy policy

not use our services.

Reddit privacy policy

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You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, 1999

225

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It's a box containing the answer to "What privacy means to me."

You researchers are measuring it and studying it, but can't actually get the answer, because it's PRIVATE. ha ha.... Heather: age 44

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227

Chapter Acknowledgements
Thanks to the students at the Carnegie Mellon Childrens School,
the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy, and Pittsburgh
Colfax who contributed drawings to this project, and their
teachers who welcomed us into their classrooms. Thanks also to
the Mechanical Turk workers who contributed their drawings.
Thanks to Abby Marsh for helping with our school visits.

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229

A F T E R
WORDS

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Final words
Maddy Varner, Ingrid Burrington, and research
assistant Claire Hentschker distilled their thoughts
on the Deep Lab discussions and their experience of
participating in the book sprint.

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Embedded within the walls of Carnegie Mellon University is a

history of learning through brute force. I have committed two
and half years to this particular system, with the hopes of coming out of it a fully formed and informed person. It hasn't always
been easy. Moments like this week in Deep Lab remind me of
why I am here.
Deep Lab found itself in the midst of finals week, the ultimate
display of institutional learning and a dark time for this undergraduate junior in the School of Art, who never quite does as well
on her finals as she wants to.
As Deep Lab kicked off, the methods of learning I was used to
encountering within the walls of this school were dramatically
altered. I was suddenly surrounded by an unprecedented level
of brain power and ability, warmth and kindness. It was difficult
not to just sit back and watch, to learn through osmosis, trying to
absorb as much of the fantastic spirit and talent that was in the
room for 12 hours a day all week. It was so unbelievably inspiring to be around these women I felt like I could relate to on a
personal level, bearing witness to them do what they excel at. I
came to understand their commitment to doing good for future
generations, while also doing right by each other and the world
around them. Knowing there are people out there like the Deep
Lab members restores my faith, reminds me of what I aspire to,
and motivates me to continue learning as much as I can, regardless of how dark finals may seem.
-Claire Hentschker

231

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Ive come out of this week exhausted, but better than Ive ever
been. Finals week is brutal at every school and every semester,
but this was perhaps the most intense and stressful one Ive
experienced yet. Education is as masochistic as it is beneficial,
and I spend a lot of time feeling like shit. Its hard to have a
long-term perspective when its three in the morning and your
problem set still isnt finished. When your reward for finishing
your work is simply more work, its hard to see the point of
anything.
Deep Lab has given me hope in the face of academic purgatory
#yolo

(this is dramatic, but I also feel like I havent slept in seven

centuries so Im entitled to be a little bit exaggerated). I feel
so privileged to be able to spend an entire week with some of
the most incredible, talented women I have met in my entire
life. Their kindness, generosity, and openness has been so
overwhelming, and the support theyve given me and each other
is astounding. I cant properly convey in words how happy
and lucky I feel to have been surrounded by such a wonderful
community. I hope we can continue to hack, make, and write
together for a long time, and I hope we can work towards better
tomorrows, but also better todays.
-Maddy Varner

It's 10:18pm on Saturday. I would say I'm in Pittsburgh but I'm actually in a university, which is more like being in a citadel than a city.
Maral's been designing for about 12 hours straight. We can't seem to
convince her to stop, although perhaps we're not trying that hard.
Remaining tasks have been delegated. Allison has resigned herself
to her text. The music students in the midst of finals have been
performing the same piece in a nearby practice room for hours. In
Brooklyn, the entire city is apparently shut down in the names of
far too many murdered black men and women. We promised we
would call it a day--like actually call it a day, like stop working completely--at 10. Sharp. So much for that. I get on a plane back to New
York tomorrow. The week is blurry--field trips to data centers, too
much German techno, the torture report, jokes, paper plates with
half-eaten Chinese food.
We said we'd write an afterword. There should be an afterword.
This isn't the afterword. I'm assuming Maddy and Claire are going
to write it and are writing it right now, but I'm writing this anyway.
Maybe just for myself, also for Juna, my friends Erin and Peter's
1-year-old daughter who has been in the back of my mind all week.
I think about the world that Juna will inherit, about the society that
will impose roles on her that she may not want to perform (including the pronouns I'm using to describe her). Humans who can't
really walk or feed themselves or fully comprehend language can
be a pretty compelling motivation to unfuck the world.
I want to tell Juna about this week, even though she's a baby and
doesn't really understand words. I came into this residency-congress-booksprint-I don't know what the fuck with no idea what I
was getting into. Since then, I've experienced more honesty, generosity, and support in these past five days than I have in my entire
art career.
For the last week I've mostly been in a high-ceilinged room at Carnegie Mellon University, surrounded by brilliant women talking
about privacy, surveillance, power, gender, futures. I've heard each
of these women, including myself, self-deprecatingly undermine
their accomplishments and expertise because they're not "tradition-

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ally" educated programmers, because they aren't programmers

at all, because they aren't writers, because they are too old or
too young or too honest or too shy, because they are women in a
world that has constantly insisted they are not and never will be
enough.
Fuck that. Fuck men who've completely ruined the word "hacker" keynoting to conference audiences full of other white men
who think that they are the ones we've been waiting for. We've
been waiting for you to step the fuck back. Fuck the carceral
feminists insisting that the path to liberation is lined with police barricades. Fuck the market, fuck prestige economics, fuck
respectability politics.
I want to remember and hold onto this sentiment for Juna, because I want a world where she never has to apologize for being
not enough. I want a world where we don't have to blockade traffic to demand that police stop murdering people with impuinty.
I want a different future for this kid who's not even my fucking
kid, a future that for too long has felt impossible but that, despite
this strange awful American winter-fall-summer of our discontent, now feels far closer than it has in a long time.
These sorts of revelatory experiences tend to happen in weird
vacuums like book sprints and short-term projects. A certain sentimentality emerges from exhaustion, from crisis--and to be fair,
I can't remember a time when the world didn't feel like it was on
fire, where right now was not especially right now.
I don't know exactly how to carry the love and hope and faith
that I've felt in this high-ceilinged room in this bizarre citadel of
a university back into the world. I'm not sure that the women of
Deep Lab will get to convene in such a magical, powerful space
again, but I sincerely hope I get to work with them again and I
know they're going to continue to shape my work. I hope this
book that apparently, finally, is done or close to done will help.
-Ingrid Burrington

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235

Acknowledgments
The Deep Lab extends its gratitude to the following persons and
institutions:
The Deep Lab participants, both on-location (IRL) and remote:
Addie Wagenknecht, Allison Burtch, Claire L. Evans, Denise
Caruso, Harlo Holmes, Ingrid Burrington, Jen Lowe, Jillian C.
York, Kate Crawford, Julia Kaganskiy, Lindsay Howard, Lorrie
Faith Cranor, Maddy Varner, Maral Pourkazemi, and Runa A.
Sandvik.
The Deep Lab interviews and documentary film were created by:
Jonathan Minard / Deepspeed Media, independent filmmaker
Alex Bolinger, camera operator
The staff of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry:
Golan Levin, STUDIO Director and Professor, CMU School of Art
Marge Myers, Associate Director
Linda Hager, Business Administrator
Rich Kawood, IT Manager
Caitlin R. Boyle, staff videographer
Claire Hentschker, undergraduate research assistant
Nina Anneli Friman, graduate research assistant
Lorries chapter was created with the collaboration and/or
assistance of:
Darya Kurilova, doctoral student, Software Engineering, CMU
Manya Sleeper, doctoral student, Societal Computing, CMU
Rebecca Balebako, postdoctoral researcher, CUPS lab, CMU
The children of the Carnegie Mellon Childrens School, Pittsburgh
Science and Technology Academy, and Pittsburgh Colfax School
The workers of Amazon Mechanical Turk
Abby Marsh

Additional technical and logistical support kindly provided by:

Ali Momeni, Professor of Art, and Director, CMU ArtFab
Bob Kollar, IT Director, CMU School of Art
Jamie Gruszka, Manager, CMU Photography Studios
Larry Shea, Professor, CMU School of Drama
Liz Fox and Rachael Swetnam, CMU College of Fine Arts
Additional friends, consultants, guests and supporters:
Alessandro Acquisti, Andrea Boykowycz, Ekene Ijeoma, Jacob
Appelbaum, Lauren Goshinski, Lea Albaugh, Matt Sandler, Nina
Barbuto, bitforms gallery, and Sheba the dog.
Deep Lab was made possible by financial support from:
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
The CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Lab (CUPS) at CMU
The National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works program
The Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier

Fair Use Notice

This document may contain copyrighted material whose use
has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.
The Deep Lab is making this material available in our efforts
to advance the understanding of issues related to privacy,
surveillance, anonymity, networked culture, and social justice.
We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any copyrighted
material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the
United States Copyright Law. Accordingly, the material in this
publication is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information
for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own
that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.

Content Disclaimer
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this document are those
of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect
the views or official policies of their employers, Carnegie Mellon
University, its members, funding agencies, or staff. Nor do such
views and opinions necessarily reflect those of The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the
Arts, the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier, or any other
individuals or organizations that have provided assistance of any
type. Contributors express views independently and individually.
The thoughts and opinions expressed by one do not necessarily
reflect the views of all (or any) of the other contributors. Neither
this document nor its authors have received any remuneration,
consideration or benefit for mentioning, reporting, including, or
commenting about any program, policy, law, theory, hypothesis,
product, or intellectual property. Any errors, omissions,
oversights or other problems associated with this document are
solely those of the author(s) and no one else. Please notify the
author(s) of errors or any other problems.

License

This book, Deep Lab, by the Deep Lab (http://deeplab.net) is licensed

under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.
You are free to:
Share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt remix, transform, and build upon the material
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the
license terms:
Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to
the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any
reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor
endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial You may not use the material for commercial
purposes.
ShareAlike If you remix, transform, or build upon the material,
you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the
original.

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Colophon
Deep Lab
Published by the Deep Lab and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for
Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://deeplab.net
http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org
This publication was created during a book sprint at the FrankRatchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University,
December 8-13, 2014. This publication is freely available in digital
form from the publishers.
This book was designed by Maral Pourkazemi.
Additional layout by Claire Hentschker.
This book was set in Droid Serif and Droid Sans, designed by Steve
Matteson of Ascender Corporati on, and Roboto, designed by
Christian Robertson at Google. These fonts are licensed under the
Apache 2.0 License.
ISBN: 978-1-312-77551-0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: Pending.
First Edition, December 2014
Version 2012_12_22.a

ISBN 978-1-312-77551-0

90000

9 781312 775510